News from the TRNC

Statement by the Presidential Spokesperson Mr. Hasan Ercakica

Presidential Spokesman Mr. Hasan Erçakıca made statements regarding the economic crisis:

“Economization and efficient production”

Presidential Spokesman Mr. Hasan Erçakıca stated that, in order to be able to overcome the economic problems emerging as a result of whether the effects of the global crisis or the fact that the economic growth started in 2004 has slowed down, utmost attention should be paid to economization and production of efficient goods and services.

At the weekly press conference, Mr.Erçakıca pointed out that the developed countries have been going through a process of economic recession and added “The countries wishing to maintain their economic growth by selling goods or services to the citizens of those developed countries, will be able to maintain their economic activities to the extent that they can produce low-cost goods and they will even have competitive advantage”.

Saying “During this process, we have to introduce measures as well to reduce our costs so as to protect the economy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus or to endure this period with the minimum damage possible” Erçakıca summarized this by saying “The state should also have their share of the responsibility for increasing the level of productivity of the works in the real economy as well as avoiding the expenditures of the state from becoming a burden over the real economy. To that end, the idea of creating new domestic resources for the expenditures of the state should be abandoned and the amount of bureaucratic proceedings should be reduced in order to have economic fluidity”.

Stressing that entry of new resources via foreign investments should be one of the primary aims to be reached Erçakıca said “The Government should adopt measures facilitating this. Since the financial resources cannot be spent to that end, reducing the bureaucratic obstacles before the foreign investments should be prioritized. There are views that this process can be overcome more easily by increasing the state expenditures. However, the state can spend its resources to the extent that it can create new resources and that is how it should be. Furthermore, it is principal that these resources are used efficiently in accordance with the aims stated above. Spending the state expenditures to save the day and to maintain personal consumption tendencies would not help us overcome the crisis. It can only postpone the crisis and may cause other problems even after the crisis has ended”.

Indicating that we can come out of the said process by economization and efficient working Erçakıca said “While we turn our savings into investments, the costs should be reduced via efficient working and we should be able to produce goods and services that can compete in the world market”.

Adoption of Euro should not be politicized

Referring to criticisms that adoption of Euro would issue a clear message to the world regarding the decisiveness of the Turkish Cypriot people for a settlement Presidential Spokesman Hasan Erçakıca said that it is not right to politicize such a technical issue.

Reminding the decisions taken by the European Union (EU) after the referendum regarding the Financial Aid and Direct Trade Regulations Erçakıca said “Given that no steps could have been taken to that direction yet, in other words since we can not have direct trade with the Europe yet, trying to issue messages by adopting Euro is an issue that should be undertaken with utmost care.”