Babacan says many European countries see Turkey as a growing value

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan yesterday met with President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank Dennis Lockart and Mayor of Georgia Nathan Deal in Atlanta, the US, where he has been holding official contacts as part of the Turkey Investment week organized by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the US Chamber of Commerce. Afterwards, Babacan made a speech talk on "Turkey as a Manufacturing and Investment Hub for US Companies" at Emory University in Atlanta. Speaking on the sidelines of conference, Babacan said that the focus of Turkey's EU membership used to be whether Turkey was ready or not, but the main question is now when Europe will be ready. "Many European countries see Turkey as a growing value day-by-day. "Turkey is a very large country and the day it becomes a member it will have the third highest voting power in the EU. This worries some countries," Babacan noted. Babacan added that Turkey's Finance Ministry was working on a new cash repatriation regulation popularly known as "wealth amnesty" which encouraged Turkish expatriates to transfer their holdings from foreign accounts to Turkish bank.