SAVING EUROPE
Interventionist supply-side Turkish economic policies are delivering. Past two years, the economic growth has been hovering around 7 percent in Türkiye. Next year, there may even be a double digit growth. The ripple effect may be even beneficial “Saving Europe”.
Interventionist
Supply-Side Turkish Economic Policies
In a twenty-year span, Türkiye increased education and training. It improved transportation and infrastructure. It built affordable homes and invested in the healthcare. As a result, the country’s economy exhibited a robust annual GDP growth rate of 5.4 percent.
Increasing Education and Training
Türkiye had about 80 universities twenty years ago. Now it has not only 160 of them but also half of the eighty newly built are private ventures. Similar growth is prevalent in the rest of the school system. There are rapid growths basically in the pre-kindergarten school system but also in the apprenticeship and internship programs.
Improving Transport and Infrastructure
The country targets to become a logistics center. The spending on infrastructure will continue to focus on expanding railways and building more highways. Sea transport, communications, and air transport will also take shares from investments. Railways in Türkiye, for example, accounted for 3 percent of all freight shipments in 2019. They will be increased to over 22 percent by 2053.
Building More Affordable Homes
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan regime tries to make cities less populated. The goal is to spread affordable housing for low-income families. As a result, houses not only will continue to be built in 67 cities across the country but also they will follow “horizontal urbanization” programs. Replacing old buildings under the risk of collapse will also take place simultaneously.
Improving Healthcare
Türkiye has significantly improved the quality of its healthcare services. Reportedly, it will soon catch up with OECD. Currently, South Korea leads the world with 77 hospitals for 1 million people. Japan is second and France is third place with 66 and 45 hospitals, respectively. Türkiye is number 23 with 19. As a result, it is already able to host more than 600,000 foreign patients a year.
Supply-Side Turkish Economic Policies
Supply-side economic policies, having proved to be beneficial for Türkiye, have a ripple effect. Powerfully humming Turkish economy next door to the West contributes to the prosperity of Europe.
How Turkish Economic Policies
May Be Contributing
“Saving Europe”
Currently, the US is the biggest trading partner of Europe with a half a trillion dollar volume. The UK, Switzerland, China, Russia follow in order. Türkiye comes after them in the sixth slot.
Within this decade, Türkiye may move up three more slots and may very well be in the company of the US and the UK at the top three. Above all, at this time, Türkiye delivering instead of Russia may come as solace to some.
All things considered, China will continue to supply Europe much like the US and the UK. As can be seen so far from the growth rates, Türkiye may very well become part of the quartet.
Mother of All Ironies
&
Turkish Economic Policies
From historical and cultural perspectives, for Türkiye to demonstrate contribution to “Saving Europe” is a pleasant irony.
As a rising power of the East that used to menace Christianity, now acting as a helping hand, is the mother of all ironies.
Doing it together with other rising powers of the East like China and Russia is all the more awkwardly intriguing.
Nevertheless, leveraging them for the good of the Western civilization is a twist extraordinaire.
Even if it bewilders the misanthropic West, that has a grudge against the “barbarians” of the East!
