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Zaman; The Turkish Times
Topic Started: Feb 2 2013, 11:03 PM (184 Views)
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Bringing you news from Turkey.

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Turkey to Increase Military Procurement Budget by 50%
September 2013

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Ankara, Turkey -- The Turkish Parliament has approved an increase in the military procurement budget of Turkey by 50% for this year and each subsequent following year. In both 2010 and 2011, the allocated budget for military procurement hovered around 4 billion USD, however for this year (2013) the budget procurement decreased to 2.6 billion USD.

In a statement by the Prime Minister, Erdoğan stated the following: "The recent events in Syria and the growing threat to regional stability with the heavy military involvement by Russia and Iran in the Syrian Civil War have demonstrated a need for military preparedness. This move today by parliament merely returns Turkey's allocated military procurement to a level that is comparable to what it was for the past few years. The Turkish military must stand strong and ready to deal with any threats to our national security and to also ensure that Turkish interests are not threatened. The recent threat of chemical weapons and potential missile attacks on Turkey have demonstrated a glaring need by the Turkish Armed Forces to have better anti-air defense so that our citizens can sleep safely; this is something which this additional budget allocation can help fund."

When questioned about the additional military expenses on top of the procurement budget that is sometimes used for new military equipment, the prime minister's spokesman responded that "The increased - to previous levels - military procurement budget is to make it easier for our military to budget for future years. Of course, any additional military systems or expenses outside of the budget will be addressed and looked upon on an individual basis based on need."
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Domestic Popularity: +1.50% - 'people, support the increased spending, as it is in line with the regional increases.'
Domestic Popularity: -1.00% - 'economists are somewhat concerned with the increase.'
Military budget adjusted accordingly
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Fostering Entrepreneurship - Turkey Part One
September 2013

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Ankara, Turkey -- It is no secret that venture capital within Turkey, and the whole entrepreneurial environment, is nowhere near what the Turkish government envisions it to be. As it existed yesterday, the Turkish government was already taking steps to create an environment conductive to high-tech startups and research. Below is a report on the current state and support of entrepreneurship within Turkey.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
 
The Turkish Government provides support to technology development zones (TDZ), including infrastructure and facilities; exemption from income and corporate taxes for profits derived from software and R&D activities (through December 2013); exemption from all taxes for the wages of researchers, software, and R&D personnel employed within the TDZ (through December 31, 2013); value-added tax (VAT) and corporate tax exemptions for IT specific sectors; and customs and duties exemptions. Turkey's Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) has special programs for entrepreneurs in the technology sector and the Turkish Technology Development Foundation (TTGV) has programs that provide capital loans for R&D projects and/or cover R&D-related expenses. Projects eligible for such incentives include concept development, technological research, technical feasibility research, laboratory studies to transform concept into design, design and sketching studies, prototype production, construction of pilot facilities, test production, patent and license studies, and activities related to post-scale problems stemming from product design.


Today, the Turkish government has announced a four-pronged initiative towards stimulating further entrepreneurship within Turkey.

First - They announced that for the existing 27 TDZs and the 12 under construction, the exemption from all taxes for the wages of researchers, software, and R&D personnel employed within the TDZ will be extended an additional year to December 2014, while the exemption from income and corporate taxes for profits derived from software and R&D activities will be extended for companies created in the 12 new TDZ zones to last 1.5 years from the completion and opening of each of the respective 12 TDZ zones; in effect, this latter move is to encourage new start-ups to rise from the new TDZs. In addition, the government is to dedicate $25 million to help new startups in the TDZs grow as well as to aid in the completion of the planned TDZs.

Second - $75 million will be set aside for the creation of incubators in the largest or most technological-adept cities of Turkey with the purpose of helping new companies start and grow. The difference between the intended target for these incubators versus the startups in the TDZ is that those within the TDZs are from a much more specific subset of company types while all sorts of companies can apply for these incubators. The incubators will give small infusions of cash ($20-$100,000), but the primarily point of this is to help the companies develop and grow, rather than just simply given cash. Comparing this to the third approach below, (2) is more about smart money, while (3) is more about just dumb money.

Third - $100 million will be used to establish seed funds within Turkey for $10-$50,000 initial seed/angel investments in promising start-ups and small businesses across all different fields. Offices for these seed funds will be established across the major cities and technology areas of Turkey. These funds have two options: either (1) investing in a company through a convertible note system where the initial investment gets converted to equity at a follow-up investment round, or (2) through a no-interest loan. The fund's managers will evaluate which method is best for each company they accept to invest/loan to. The purpose of these funds is to both stimulate small businesses as well as to help create a start-up environment that will be more appetizing to venture capitals who do not want to be involved with smaller rounds of money.

Four - The government has been carrying out a large outreach campaign to foreign venture capitals and investors to create investment funds in Turkey for the investment within Turkish businesses. Among other things, the government - in a similar page from the TDZs - is offering much reduced income and corporate taxes for the first year for high-quality, experienced investment firms with no existing office or presence in Turkey to establish one. The first three actions have helped make the landscape more attractive for this fourth step.

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Turkey

Domestic Popularity +2.5

+0.02 % GDP




-$200,000,000


More results to come over the coming years please PM me in 2014 around August time for more results
Edited by Jos1311, Feb 24 2013, 01:21 AM.
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Government Tackles Shadow Economy
Fall 2013

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Ankara, Turkey -- The Turkish "Shadow Economy, by many different figures and estimates, accounts for over 30%+ of the Turkey's overall economy. The phrase "Shadow Economy" refers to the undocumented, unreported elements of Turkey's GDP where the productions and transactions between people are conducted without being reported to the government. A black market of sorts in other words.

It has been a long recognized part of Turkey, but up until now no significant attempt has been done to combat it. The "Shadow Economy" is a large reason as to why Turkey's government gets most of its tax revenue not from income or corporate tax, but rather the "consumption taxes" which bring in revenue from the purchase of goods within Turkey. Of course, such a system of taxation means that a tax scale where the rich are taxed more than the poor is much harder to implement as consumption taxes tax everyone equally. Thus, while Turkey does have varying tax rates for personal income tax, the amount of proportional revenue from such taxes are not as great overall in government revenue compared to other countries lil the United States.

In a statement released by the Turkish authorities: "The government will give unregistered businesses and individuals until the end of 2013 to register with the appropriate authorities. A budget of $100 million is to be immediately authorized for the increase in size of the agency in charge of this matter. Starting immediately, the agency is to increase in size and begin vigorously investigating any businesses that are not registered and paying taxes. All businesses found will have until the end of 2013 to register and pay their taxes. After that, any business found not to be registered or not paying the appropriate taxes will be fined severely, and closed down + jailed if those fines are failed to be paid. In addition to investigating unregistered businesses (first priority), the agency will be looking into the statements of existing registered businesses and individuals to make sure those numbers are correct. Corruption is not to be tolerated."

In a further statement, the Turkish spokesperson elaborated, "The reasoning behind this action is to make the tax burden more equal for all our citizens. It is not fair to upstanding citizens who pay their full taxes to have others in this country, benefiting from the same protection and rights our government guarantees, to have others not due their bare minimum civic duty in paying their rightful taxes."
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Approved and results granted
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Two Turkish Privatization Sales
January 2014

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Ankara, Turkey -- The Turkish government has announced two major successful privatization initiatives that closed near the end of 2013. These initiatives were the result of over year of preparation and negotiation and represent a large influx of cash to help balance the deficits Turkey is facing year after year.

In what many are calling the largest privatization sale ever, Turkey's Spor Toto has been sold for $9 billion USD to a consortium composed of both foreign and private Turkish investors. Spor Toto has generated over $24 billion in revenue in the past eight years and has benefited strongly from Turkey's ban of brick and mortar casinos since 1996. It has also benefited from Turkey's National Lottery and telecommunications authority's cooperative efforts in combating websites operating illegally; in 2008, 56 websites were closed, followed by 93 sites in 2009, 119 sites in 2010, and 110 in 2011. Among the other announcements made about this sale, one that stood out was a public government guarantee which mentioned that no legal sites would be blocked - with legal sites being ones that are properly registered with the government and paying any relevant taxes and dues. The spokesperson also emphasized that there are no plans for now or the future to change the laws governing online gambling websites and how they are regulated or taxed. Analysts believe that such statements were made to assuage any concerns the consortium purchasing Spor Toto may have had regarding government oversight of their newly acquired venture.

In another privatization sale, the Turkish government has announced a $6.5 billion USD agreement to lease out the concessions to operate over 1,975km of toll roads and the existing two bridges over the Bosphorus. Although previous talks and press release regarding this sale pointed to an agreement which would bundle all the concessions together into the 25 year lease, the final agreement actually saw the concessions being divided into smaller bundles. Analysts believe that the breaking apart of the original large package was so that the overall price of the leases could be increased. By breaking apart the package, it enabled more potential investors to be involved and to bid for the concessions.

Overall, this sees Turkey gain $15.5 billion in immediate income, although costing it over $500 million USD per year in revenue. In the short-run, this provides Turkey a large injection of cash that can be used to combat the deficit spending that has been ongoing.
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