Babacan-Led meeting outlines new economic policy

Chaired by State Minister for the Economy Ali Babacan, the Economic Coordination Board (EKK) gathered yesterday with the attendance of other economy-related Cabinet ministers such as Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek, Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergun, State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafer Caglayan and Cevdet Yilmaz, the state minister responsible for the State Planning Organization. The EKK plans to focus on ways to strengthen the Turkish economy's competitive power and to make it more resilient in the long term to reduce the impact of the global economic crisis, said a statement released after the meeting. The statement added that members of the board focused on the global crisis and recent economic developments. "In upcoming meetings of the council, we will continue to discuss ways to reduce the impact of the global crisis on our country and examine the outcome of measures taken so far. It is one of the priorities of our council to determine the steps to be taken and the regulations to be implemented in order to strengthen the Turkish economy’s competitive power and make it more resilient. Some relevant non-member ministers and representatives of public and private institutions, including NGOs and universities, may be invited to future meetings of the board," said the board’s message.