Thursday, October 31, 2013

Saint Vincent and Granadines - Introduction

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

 is an island country in the Lesser Antilles chain, in the southern portion of the Windward Islands, which lie at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea where the latter meets the Atlantic Ocean.
Its 389 km2 (150 sq mi) territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines, which are a chain of smaller islands stretching south from Saint Vincent Island to Grenada. The main island of Saint Vincent measures 18 km (11 mi) long, 11 km (6.8 mi) in width and 344 km2 (133 sq mi) in area. From the most northern to the most southern points, the Grenadine islands belonging to Saint Vincent span 60.4 km (37.5 mi) with a combined area of 45 km2 (17 sq mi). Most of the nation lies within the Hurricane Belt.
To the north of Saint Vincent lies Saint Lucia, to the east Barbados. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is a densely populated country (over 300 inhabitants/km2) with approximately 120,000 inhabitants.

Its capital is Kingstown, also its main port. The country has a French and British colonial history and is now part of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, CARICOM, the Commonwealth of Nations, the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).
The island now known as Saint Vincent was originally named Youloumain by the native Caribs who called themselves Kalina/Carina ("l" and "r" being pronounced the same in their tongue). The Caribs aggressively prevented European settlement on Saint Vincent until 1719. Prior to this, formerly enslaved Africans, who had either been shipwrecked or who had escaped from Barbados, Saint Lucia and Grenada and sought refuge in mainland Saint Vincent, intermarried with the Caribs and became known as Black Caribs or Garifuna.

Music of Turkey




Rank and Economy of Turkey


Rank of Turkey from the poorest countries is 111 and from the richest is 92 with gdp per capita in atlas method is 2,790 $ in 2003. In other methods such as IMF,WB and CIA in 2007,2007, and 2008 in nominal method
IMF..................................................WB..........................................CIA
rank/measure..................................rank/measure..........................rank/measure
55/9,569...................................45/8,893.......................................55/9,323
Economy of Turkey
Cruise ship and Seabus in Istanbul.jpg
Levent business district in Istanbul
Rank 17th (nominal) / 15th (PPP)
Currency Turkish lira (TRY)
Fiscal year calendar year
Trade organisations G-20 major economies, OECD, EU Customs Union, WTO, ECO, BSEC
Statistics
GDP $1.358 trillion (PPP, 2012)
$789.257 billion (Nominal, 2012)
GDP growth Increase 4.4% (Q2 2013)
Increase 5.2% (2002-2011 average)
Increase 6.7% (2011-2017 avg. Forecast in OECD)
GDP per capita $18,348 (PPP, 2012)
$10,666 (Nominal, 2012)
GDP by sector agriculture: 8.9%; industry: 28.1%; services: 63.0% (2012 est.)
Inflation (CPI) 6.1% (April 2013)
5.3% (2013 target)
5.0% (2014 target)
Population
below poverty line
16.9% (2010)
Gini coefficient 40.2 (2010) 
Labour force 27.34 million (2012 est.) note: about 1.2 million Turks work abroad
Labour force
by occupation
agriculture: 25.5%, industry: 26.2%, services: 48.4% (2010)
Unemployment 8.8% (June 2013)
8.9% (2013 In Medium Term Programme)
8.8% (2014 In Medium Term Programme)
Main industries textiles, food processing, autos, electronics, tourism, mining (coal, chromate, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, paper
Ease of Doing Business Rank 71st
External
Exports Increase $163.40 billion (29th) (2012)
Export goods apparel, foodstuffs, textiles, metal manufactures, transport equipment
Main export partners  Germany 8.6%
 Iraq 7.1%
 Iran 6.5%
 United Kingdom 5.7%
 United Arab Emirates 5.4%
 Russia 4.4%
 Italy 4.2%
 France 4.1% (2012 est.)
Imports Decrease $228.90 billion (22nd) (2012)
Import goods machinery, chemicals, semi-finished goods, fuels, transport equipment
Main import partners  Russia 11.3%
 Germany 9.0%
 China 9.0%
 United States 6.0%
 Italy 5.6%
 Iran 5.1% (2012 est.)

Güler Sabancı, one of the leading Turkish industrialists and the current chairperson of the Sabancı Holding, at the World Economic Forum.
Turkey has the world's 17th largest nominal GDP, and 15th largest GDP by PPP. The country is a founding member of the OECD (1961) and the G-20 major economies (1999). Since December 31, 1995, Turkey is also a part of the EU Customs Union.
While many economies have been unable to recover from the recent global financial recession, the Turkish economy expanded by 9.2% in 2010, and 8.5 percent in 2011, thus standing out as the fastest growing economy in Europe, and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Hence, Turkey has been meeting the “60 percent EU Maastricht criteria” for public debt stock since 2004. Similarly, from 2002 to 2011, the budget deficit decreased from more than 10 percent to less than 3 percent, which is one of the EU Maastricht criteria for the budget balance.
The CIA classifies Turkey as a developed country. Turkey is often classified as a newly industrialized country by economists and political scientists; while Merrill Lynch, the World Bank, and The Economist describe Turkey as an emerging market economy.
The World Bank classifies Turkey as an upper-middle income country in terms of the country's per capita GDP in 2007. Mean graduate pay was $10.02 per manhour in 2010.
According to a survey by Forbes, Istanbul, Turkey's financial capital, had a total of 28 billionaires as of March 2010 (down from 34 in 2008), ranking 4th in the world behind New York City (60 billionaires), Moscow (50 billionaires), and London (32 billionaires).
In 2009 the Turkish government introduced various economic stimulus measures to reduce the impact of the 2007–2012 global financial crisis such as temporary tax cuts on automobiles, home appliances, and housing. As a result, the production of durable consumer goods increased by 7.2%, despite a decrease in automotive production.
The Turkish Stock Market and credit rating agencies have responded positively. According to The Economist, share prices in Turkey nearly doubled over the course of 2009. On 8 January 2010, International credit rating agency Moody's upgraded Turkey's rating one notch. In 2012, Fitch upgraded Turkey's credit rating to investment grade (long-term foreign currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) was upgraded to BBB- (from BB+) and long-term local currency IDR was upgraded to BBB (from BB+)) after an 18-year gap; this was followed by a ratings upgrade by Moody's in May 2013, as the service lifted Turkey's government bond ratings to the lowest investment grade Baa3. The decision is Moody's first investment-grade rating for Turkey in two decades and the service stated in its official statement that the nation's "recent and expected future improvements in key economic and public finance metrics" was the basis for the ratings boost.
Turkish President Abdullah Gul said that Turkey was one of the rare countries whose financial institutions made profits in the last three years at a time of global economic crisis. Turkey is the world’s 15th and Europe’s 6th largest economy and the Turkish economy grew 11% in the first six months of 2010. Turkey is the country in OECD with the biggest growth of economy. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Turkey will exceed China, United States, Brazil, and Japan in the rise of national income.
According to the Financial Times Special Report on Turkey, Turkish business executives and government officials believe the quickest route to achieving export growth lies outside of traditional western markets. According to Daniel Dombey of the Financial Times, a bit over five years ago, the "European Union accounted for much more than half of all Turkey’s exports. Now the figure is heading down toward not much more than a third”. Erdem Başçı, Turkey’s central bank governor, predicts that Iraq will eventually become Turkey’s largest export market. The Turkish government is intricately involved in helping to facilitate private sector expansion in emerging markets. “The government has a strategic vision, saying: ‘We will open up more embassies in growth regions and emerging markets such as Africa, Turkish Airlines will fly there, so Turkish businessmen can go there to do business there,’” says Hüsnü Özyeğin, one of Turkey’s most prominent businessmen and bankers. Similarly, Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey’s foreign minister, is focusing his attentions on the Middle East and striking a series of visa-free travel deals, while eyeing to establish free trade zones with the countries in the region. The AKP government is also seeking to improve economic and political relations with the autonomous Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq.

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Industry in Turkey

The economy of Turkey is defined as an emerging market economy by the IMF and is largely developed, making Turkey one of the world's newly industrialized countries. The country is among the world's leading producers of agricultural products; textiles; motor vehicles, ships and other transportation equipment; construction materials; consumer electronics and home appliances. In recent years, Turkey had a rapidly growing private sector, yet the state still plays a major role in industry, banking, transport, and communications.

Industrial sector

Consumer electronics and home appliances

Turkish brands like Beko and Vestel are among the largest producers of consumer electronics and home appliances in Europe.
Turkey's Vestel is the largest TV producer in Europe, accounting for a quarter of all TV sets manufactured and sold on the continent in 2006. By January 2005, Vestel and its rival Turkish electronics and white goods brand Beko accounted for more than half of all TV sets manufactured in Europe. Another Turkish electronics brand, Profilo-Telra, was Europe's third largest TV producer in 2005. EU market share of Turkish companies in consumer electronics has increased significantly following the Customs Union agreement signed between the EU and Turkey: in color TVs from 5% in 1995 to more than 50% in 2005, in digital devices from 3% to 15%, and in white goods from 3% to 18%.

Textiles and clothing

Turkish companies made clothing exports worth $13.98 billion in 2006; more than $10.67 billion of which (76.33%) were made to the EU member states.

Motor vehicles and automotive products

Turkish automotive companies like TEMSA, Otokar and BMC are among the world's largest van, bus and truck manufacturers.
Turkey has a large and growing automotive industry, which produced 1,024,987 motor vehicles in 2006, ranking as the 7th largest automotive producer in Europe; behind Germany (5,819,614), France (3,174,260), Spain (2,770,435), the United Kingdom (1,648,388), Russia (1,508,358) and Italy (1,211,594), respectively.
In 2008 Turkey produced 1,147,110 motor vehicles, ranking as the 6th largest producer in Europe (behind the United Kingdom and above Italy) and the 15th largest producer in the world.
The automotive industry is an important part of the economy since the late 1960s. The companies that operate in the sector are mainly located in the Marmara Region. With a cluster of car-makers and parts suppliers, the Turkish automotive sector has become an integral part of the global network of production bases, exporting over $22,944,000,000 worth of motor vehicles and components in 2008.

Multiple unit trains, locomotives and wagons

TÜLOMSAŞ (1894), TÜVASAŞ (1951) and EUROTEM (2006) are among the major producers of multiple unit trains, locomotives and wagons in Turkey, including high-speed EMU and DMU models.

Shipbuilding

Turkey is one of the world's leading shipbuilding nations; in 2007 Turkish shipyards ranked 4th in the world (behind China, South Korea and Japan) in terms of the number of ordered ships, and also 4th in the world (behind Italy, USA and Canada) in terms of the number of ordered mega yachts.

Arms industry

F-511 TCG Heybeliada is the lead ship of the MILGEM project next generation corvettes and frigates of the Turkish Navy.
Turkey has many modern armament manufacturers. Annual exports reached $1.25 billion in 2012.[70] MKEK, TAI, Aselsan, Roketsan, FNSS, Nurol Makina, Otokar, and Havelsan are major manufacturers. On July 11, 2002, Turkey became a Level 3 partner of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) development program. TAI builds various aircraft types and models, such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon for the Turkish Air Force. Turkey has recently launched domestically built new military/intelligence satellites including a 0.8m resolution reconnaissance satellite (Project Göktürk-1) for use by the Turkish Armed Forces and a 2m resolution reconnaissance satellite (Project Göktürk-2) for use by the Turkish National Intelligence Organization. Other important products include the Altay main battle tank, TF-2000 class AAW frigate, Milgem class corvette, TAI Anka UAV, Aselsan İzci UGV, T-155 Fırtına self-propelled howitzer, J-600T missile, T-129 attack helicopter, Roketsan UMTAS anti-tank missile, Roketsan Cirit laser-guided rocket, Panter Howitzer, ACV-300, Otokar Cobra and Akrep, FNSS Pars 6x6 and 8x8 APC, Nurol Ejder 6x6 APC, TOROS artillery rocket system, Bayraktar Mini UAV, ASELPOD, and SOM cruise missile.

Steel-Iron industry

Turkey ranks 10th in the list of countries by steel production. In 2010, total steel production was 29 million tonnes. Turkey’s crude steel production reached a record high of 34.1 million tons in 2011. Notable producers (above 2 million tonnes) and their ranks among top steel producing companies.
  • Erdemir (7.1 million tonnes) (47th) (Only Erdemir-Turkey; Erdemir-Romania is not included)
  • Habaş (4.4 million tonnes) (72nd)
  • İçdaş (3.6 million tonnes) (76th)
  • Diler (2.3 million tonnes) (108th)
  • Çolakoğlu (2.1 million tonnes) (110th)

Construction and contracting sector

The Turkish construction and contracting industry is one of the leading, most competitive and dynamic construction/contracting industries in the world. In 2009 a total of 33 Turkish construction/contracting companies were selected for the Top International Contractors List prepared by the Engineering News-Record, which made the Turkish construction/contracting industry the world's 2nd largest, ranking behind those of China.

Service sector

Transport

As of 2009, there were 102 airports (90 with paved runways and 12 with unpaved runways) in Turkey, including the eight international airports in Istanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Trabzon, Dalaman, Milas-Bodrum and Antalya. There were also 21 heliports in the country during the same year. In 2010, there were 102 million airline passengers in Turkey. The number of airline passengers is expected to reach 120 million in 2011.
The New (Third) Airport of Istanbul (Turkish: İstanbul Yeni (Üçüncü) Havalimanı) is a projected airport to be built in the Arnavutköy district of Istanbul, Turkey. The airport is planned to be the largest airport in the world with a capacity to serve 150 million passengers per annum, due to the inadequate capacity in the existing airports of Istanbul. It will be the third international airport to be built in Istanbul.
Şişli station of the Istanbul Metro in front of Istanbul Cevahir, Europe's largest mall.
Turkish Airlines is the flag carrier airline of Turkey since 1933.
The total length of the rail network was 10,991 km in 2008, ranking 22nd in the world, including 2,133 km of electrified track. The Turkish State Railways started building high-speed rail lines in 2003. The first line, which has a length of 533 km from Istanbul (Turkey's largest metropolis) via Eskişehir to Ankara (the capital) is under construction and will reduce the travelling time from 6–7 hours to 3 hours and 10 minutes. The Ankara-Eskişehir section of the line, which has a length of 245 km and a projected travel time of 65 minutes, is completed. Trials began on April 23, 2007, and revenue earning service began on March 13, 2009. The Eskişehir-Istanbul section of the line is scheduled to be completed by 2012, and includes the Marmaray tunnel which will enter service in 2012 and establish the first direct railway connection between Europe and Anatolia.Second high-speed rail line, which has length of 212 km between Ankara and Konya become operational in 2011.
As of 2010, the country had a roadway network of 426,951 km, including 2,080 km of expressways and 16,784 km of divided highways.
As of 2010, the Turkish merchant marine included 1199 ships (604 registered at home), ranking 7th in the world. Turkey's coastline has 1,200 km of navigable waterways.
In 2008, 7,555 kilometres (4,694 mi) of natural gas pipelines and 3,636 kilometres (2,259 mi) of petroleum pipelines spanned the country's territory.

Communications

Turksat is the primary communications satellite operator of Turkey, controlling the Turksat series of satellites. TÜBİTAK and Turkish Aerospace Industries have developed scientific observation satellites and reconnaissance satellites like the RASAT, Göktürk-1 and Göktürk-2.
As of 2008, there were 17,502,000 operational landline telephones in Turkey, which ranked 18th in the world; while there were 65,824,000 registered mobile phones in the country, which ranked 15th in the world during the same year. The largest landline telephone operator is Türk Telekom, which also owns TTNET, the largest internet service provider in Turkey. The largest mobile phone operators in the country are Turkcell, Vodafone Turkey, Avea and TTNET Mobil.
The telecommunications liberalisation process started in 2004 after the creation of the Telecommunication Authority, and is still ongoing. Private sector companies operate in mobile telephony, long distance telephony and Internet access. Additional digital exchanges are permitting a rapid increase in subscribers; the construction of a network of technologically advanced intercity trunk lines, using both fiber-optic cable and digital microwave radio relay, is facilitating communication between urban centers. The remote areas of the country are reached by a domestic satellite system, while the number of subscribers to mobile-cellular telephone service is growing rapidly.
The main line international telephone service is provided by the SEA-ME-WE 3 submarine communications cable and by submarine fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Black Sea that link Turkey with Italy, Greece, Israel, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia. In 2002, there were 12 Intelsat satellite earth stations; and 328 mobile satellite terminals in the Inmarsat and Eutelsat systems.
Türksat A.Ş. is the primary communications satellite operator of Turkey, controlling the Turksat series of satellites. TÜBİTAK and Turkish Aerospace Industries have developed scientific observation satellites and reconnaissance satellites like the RASAT, Göktürk-1 and Göktürk-2.
As of 2001, there were 16 AM, 107 FM, and 6 shortwave radio stations in the country.
As of 2008, there were 24,483,000 internet users in Turkey, which ranked 15th in the world; while as of 2009, there were 2,961,000 internet hosts in the country, which ranked 27th in the world.

Tourism sector

Marmaris on the Turquoise Coast of Turkey, which is famous for its Blue Cruise voyages with gulet type schooners.
Tourism is one of the most dynamic and fastest developing sectors in Turkey. According to travel agencies TUI AG and Thomas Cook, 11 of the 100 best hotels of the world are located in Turkey. In 2005, there were 24,124,501 visitors to the country, who contributed $18.2 billion to Turkey's revenues, with an average expenditure of $679 per tourist. In 2008, the number of visitors rose to 30,929,192, who contributed $21.9 billion to Turkey's revenues. Over the years, Turkey has emerged as a popular tourist destination for many Europeans, competing with Greece, Italy and Spain. Resorts in provinces such as Antalya and Muğla (which are located on the Turkish Riviera) have become very popular among tourists.

Financial sector

The Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası) was founded in 1930, as a privileged joint-stock company. It possesses the sole right to issue notes. It also has the obligation to provide for the monetary requirements of the state agricultural and commercial enterprises. All foreign exchange transfers are exclusively handled by the central bank.
Bankalar Caddesi was Istanbul's financial center during the Ottoman period. Completed in 1892, the Ottoman Central Bank headquarters is the first building at right.
Originally established as the Ottoman Stock Exchange (Dersaadet Tahvilat Borsası) in 1866, and reorganized to its current structure at the beginning of 1986, the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) is the sole securities market of Turkey. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Bankalar Caddesi (Banks Street) in Istanbul was the financial center of the Ottoman Empire, where the headquarters of the Ottoman Central Bank (established as the Bank-ı Osmanî in 1856, and later reorganized as the Bank-ı Osmanî-i Şahane in 1863) and the Ottoman Stock Exchange (1866) were located. Bankalar Caddesi continued to be Istanbul's main financial district until the 1990s, when most Turkish banks began moving their headquarters to the modern central business districts of Levent and Maslak. In 1995, the Istanbul Stock Exchange moved to its current building in the Istinye quarter. The Istanbul Gold Exchange was also established in 1995. The stock market capitalisation of listed companies in Turkey was valued at $161,537,000,000 in 2005 by the World Bank.
Gayrettepe station of the Istanbul Metro.
Until 1991, establishing a private sector bank in Turkey wasn't easy and was subject to strict government controls and regulations. On 10 October 1991 (ten days before the general elections of 20 October 1991) the ANAP government of Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz gave special permissions to five prominent businessmen (who had close links to the government) to establish their own small-scale private banks. These were Kentbank (owned by Süzer); Park Yatırım Bankası (owned by Karamehmet); Toprakbank (owned by Toprak); Bank Ekspres (owned by Betil); and Alternatif Bank (owned by Doğan.) They were followed by other small-scale private banks established between 1994 and 1995, during the DYP government of Prime Minister Tansu Çiller, who introduced drastic changes to the banking laws and regulations; which made it very easy to establish a bank in Turkey, but also opened many loopholes in the system. In 1998, there were 72 banks in Turkey; most of which were owned by construction companies that used them as financial assets for siphoning money into their other operations. As a result, in 1999 and 2001, the DSP government of Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit had to face two major economic crises that were caused mostly by the weak and loosely regulated banking sector; the growing trade deficit; and the devastating İzmit earthquake of 17 August 1999. The Turkish lira, which was pegged to the U.S. dollar prior to the crisis of 2001, had to be floated, and lost an important amount of its value. This financial breakdown reduced the number of banks to 31. Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit had to call the renowned economist Kemal Derviş to tidy up the economy and especially the weak banking system so that a similar economic crisis would not happen again.
Söğütözü business district in Ankara.
Özdilek shopping center and Crowne Plaza Hotel in İzmir.
At present, the Turkish banking sector is among the strongest and most expansive in East Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia. During the past decade since 2001, the Turkish lira has also gained a considerable amount of value and maintained its stability, becoming an internationally exchangeable currency once again (in line with the inflation that dropped to single-digit figures since 2003.) The economy grew at an average rate of 7.8% between 2002 and 2005. Fiscal deficit is benefiting (though in a small amount) from large industrial privatizations. Banking came under stress beginning in October 2008 as Turkish banking authorities warned state-run banks against the pullback of loans from the larger financial sectors. More than 34% of the assets in the Turkish banking sector are concentrated in the Agricultural Bank (Ziraat Bankası), Housing Bank (Yapı Kredi Bankası), Isbank (Türkiye İş Bankası) and Akbank. The five big state-owned banks were restructured in 2001. Political involvement was minimized and loaning policies were changed. There are also numerous international banks, which have branches in Turkey. A number of Arabian trading banks, which practice an Islamic banking, are also present in the country.
Government regulations passed in 1929 required all insurance companies to reinsure 30% of each policy with the Millî Reasürans T.A.Ş. (National Reinsurance Corporation) which was founded on February 26, 1929. In 1954, life insurance was exempted from this requirement. The insurance market is officially regulated through the Ministry of Commerce.
After years of low levels of foreign direct investment (FDI), in 2007 Turkey succeeded in attracting $21.9 billion in FDI and is expected to attract a higher figure in following years. A series of large privatizations, the stability fostered by the start of Turkey’s EU accession negotiations, strong and stable growth, and structural changes in the banking, retail, and telecommunications sectors have all contributed to the rise in foreign investment.
In recent years, the chronically high inflation has been brought under control and this has led to the launch of a new currency, the "New Turkish lira", on January 1, 2005, to cement the acquisition of the economic reforms and erase the vestiges of an unstable economy. On January 1, 2009, the New Turkish lira was renamed once again as the "Turkish lira", with the introduction of new banknotes and coins.

Largest companies

In 2010, 12 Turkish companies were listed in the Forbes Global 2000 list - an annual ranking of the top 2000 public companies in the world by Forbes magazine. The companies were:

World Rank Company Industry Revenue
(billion $)
Profits
(billion $)
Assets
(billion $)
Market Value
(billion $)
274 Garanti Bankası Banking 9.75 2.06 77.02 16.06
288 Türkiye İş Bankası Banking 10.97 1.61 86.34 12.60
321 Koç Holding Conglomerate 36.34 1.32 41.80 7.45
343 Akbank Banking 8.06 1.16 60.23 15.75
414 Sabancı Holding Conglomerate 12.93 0.78 65.24 7.33
534 Halk Bankası Banking 5.76 1.05 33.17 8.10
609 Vakıfbank Banking 6.25 0.81 35.48 5.93
666 Türk Telekom Telecommunications 6.82 1.18 8.97 11.25
683 Turkcell Telecommunications 5.89 1.55 8.00 13.19
934 Enka İnşaat Construction 5.87 0.50 7.63 7.29
1507 Turkish Airlines Transportation 4.00 0.74 5.10 2.87
1872 Doğan Holding Conglomerate 8.17 0.05 6.80 1.68.