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Ministry of Economy: Creation of TL-zone involves doing business in Turkish lira

Business Materials 1 November 2012 16:20 (UTC +04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Nov. 1 /Trend A.Tagiyeva/

The project to create a TL-zone presupposes trade in Turkish lira among the member countries of the zone, advisor to the Turkish Minister of Economy Alparslan Uymaz told Trend, commenting on the statement of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his official visit to Germany yesterday.

"Countries that decide to enter the TL-zone will be able to trade with each other in lira alongside the local currency," Uymaz said.

According to him the project is still under development and it is not yet possible to say anything more specific about it.

Turkey invites the country, leaders in the region and the world, to participate in the zone, but the final decision is up to them.

Uymaz also noted that the lira is a stable and reliable currency and proof of this is that Turkey has recently dramatically increased the volume of foreign trade in lira.

He added that Turkey's exports in lira have increased tenfold during the last 10 years. While the import in lira increased by 43 times. Turkey trades in lira with 188 countries of the world, he said.

Experts in the world's economies should hold research projects on the creation of the TL-zone to take a decision to implement such a project and come to a conclusion on this issue, Uymaz said.

Turkish expert on economics and rector of the Aviation University of Turkey Unal Ban also said that the creation of a TL-zone is a very good decision because the Turkish economy is growing rapidly in recent years and Turkish lira remains a reliable currency in the global market.

"After joining the European Union, Turkey must keep its monetary policy. Ankara shouldn't think about joining the euro area which has recently been weakened enough," Ban told Anadolu agency on Thursday.

If the creation of a TL-zone does not seem realistic in the short term, this project will be very important in the future, he said.

Turkey plans to build such a zone as an alternative to the Eurozone, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during his official visit to Germany.

According to Erdogan, a number of EU countries haven't joined the Eurozone and have not suffered.

"Britain didn't join the Eurozone and the economy of the country is quite stable. Same British authorities advised us to do the same thing, that is not to enter the Eurozone, while creating the TL-zone," Erdogan said.

The prime minister noted that Turkey has long been thinking about it. He added that the EU should review its monetary policy.

Eurozone - the currency union, which unites 27 European Union countries, the official currency is the euro. The Eurozone was established in 1999.

The monetary unit of Turkey is the Turkish Lira (TL).

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