Page 38 - TURKRptAug20

6.0​ Public Sector 6.1​ Budget
The central bank transferred TRY55bn to the Treasury in January 2020. Total transfers from the central bank amounted to TRY90bn in 2019.
The Turkey Wealth Fund (TVF, or TWF) is to spearhead large investments in strategic sectors where private companies cannot provide leadership and has plans to target sectors from petrochemicals to aviation, its CEO Zafer Sonmez, who reports directly to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was on July 22 reported​ as telling Bloomberg.
“The idea that began in the 1980s and weakened the state role in the economy through privatizations has run its course,” Sonmez said in an interview. “We will play the lead role in making investments where the private sector’s size won’t suffice, attracting foreign investment, expanding scale and transforming markets.”
If realised, the strategy will mark a radical departure from Erdogan’s previous economic approach and thinking. In the nearly two decades since he rose to power, consecutive governments have sold more state assets than at any time since modern Turkey was established a century ago, a campaign that ranged from alcohol and tobacco production to major industrial plants and telecommunication companies, the news agency noted.
Sonmez also reportedly said that the TWF would pursue the idea of the “entrepreneurial state,” borrowed from Italian-born economist Mariana Mazzucato. He argues that governments have often been the force behind transformative innovation.
“The thinking that advocates privatizations and reduces the size of government is unable to solve today’s problems,” Sonmez was further cited as saying.
The TWF, set up in 2016, controls companies across the economy from finance and energy to technology and real estate. The political opposition has criticised it for acting as a parallel Treasury that can borrow huge amounts against the public assets it has taken over.
38​ TURKEY Country Report​ August 2020 ​ ​www.intellinews.com