Snap elections would coincide with Turkish G-20 meeting, TOBB says

Deniz Zeyrek - LONDON

Any possible early elections would coincide with the G-20 annual meeting in Turkey, to which the representatives of the 85 percent of the world economy will attend, according to the head of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu.“Some have discussed the possibility of early elections in Turkey. If a government is not established now, the country will go to an early election. According to the timeline, this snap election would be held in November. Turkey will, however, be hosting an economy meeting of huge importance, the G-20 Heads of Governments Summit, in the Mediterranean resort of Antalya on Nov. 14-15. World leaders, I mean the representative of some 85 percent of the world economy, will be there. It would be no good for Turkey to host such a crucial meeting with a temporary government,” he said during a visit to London to attend the Sustainable Development and Infrastructure Financing meeting, hosted by Prince Charles, with around 20 leading businesspeople and economists.President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also underlined the importance of the G-20 Leaders Summit under the presidency of Turkey in his first speech after the June elections and emphasized that Turkey should host the meeting with a strong government, leaving all uncertainties behind.Hisarcıklıoğlu said Turkey had organized 13 meetings on five continents as G-20 president.“Our aim is to attract global companies’ CEOs to Turkey and promote the country as a center of attraction for foreign capital. While Turkey lured a total of $20 billion to 25 billion of foreign direct investment annually a couple of years ago, this figure decreased to $10 billion to 15 billion now. The unemployment rate has been rising as the FDI inflow has been slowing down. The decreasing FDI numbers have also triggered instability. We need to lure more FDI to be able to become stronger against any foreign shocks,” Hisarcıklıoğlu told daily Hürriyet.Hisarcıklıoğlu is the head of TOBB, but he attended the London meeting as the president of the B-20, the business network of the G-20.“Sustainable and inclusive growth has been the focus of Turkey during its G-20 presidency. We know how sustainable infrastructure investments are of great importance and we find them a key target. There has been, however, a deficit in financing such projects across the world. This gap is expected to increase by up to $15 trillion to 20 trillion in the next 15 years. We need to make it possible for the private sector to invest more and for this sector and the public sector to build stronger ties,” he said during a speech at the meeting.There were just 250 companies in the B-20 network a couple of years ago, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, noting that this figure had now risen to 1,000.“We also enabled small- and medium-sized enterprises, which make up some 65 percent of global economic activities, to become an agenda item at the G-20. An international SMEs forum was established. Any SME can undertake lobbying activities in this forum in Istanbul right now, and this forum will keep working after the presidency of Turkey is over,” he said.