Expectations for 2019 should be thought separately, in two parts as in before and after elections. I suppose Government will focus on replacing the current growth model after the elections because they’ve not been able to achieve much progress with practical rectifications so far. However, I can see that, in the new economic plan, government takes a more realistic approach to the issues of growth, unemployment as well as inflation.
We will have to be content with lower growth rates. As I have said many times in my previous reports, “You cannot tame a wild horse” Maybe we ran too rapidly. After all, Turkey faced a nefarious attack on July 15, only two years ago. And as a country, we delivered a great growth performance since then. But the economic infrastructure wasn’t ready to embrace such rapid growth. It screaked and creaked to the last screw, made annoying noises. As it slowly begins to calm down, Turkey has got its chance. We should switch from a growth model to a development model. There’s also the fact that a significant part of private sector asked the Government for incentives for the last 60 years. Unfortunately, despite the incentives, private sector has not yielded the desired outcomes.
“I got tired of repeating our urgent need: Structural Reforms…”
It looks like government should first review and accordingly correct its incentive model before even starting to discuss interest rates. With smart decisions, private sector can sustain Turkish economy again. To achieve this end, we obviously need a wide range of structural reforms in justice, freedoms and education. 2019 offers us a great chance to start implementing these “Structural Reforms” frequently referred to by Professor Eğilmez.
Meanwhile, Turkey is facing escalating generational conflicts. A problem that can only be overcome by digitalization…
Digitalization can serve as an excellent mean to minimize generation gap. Considering people seem to be resistant to the change, we need a strong and effective leadership to show people the advantages of digital transformation, convincing them that digitalization is just inevitable. Naturally, at the end of this process, some of the current sectors, even some job roles, will be taken out of the game.
It is understood that digital transformation is unavoidable. After all, necessary opportunities and climate should be established to enable people to use their creative thinking during the transition to a post-scarcity economy. People, who spend three hours a day for traveling to work, and 7 to 8 hours a day at the office, breathing a sigh of relief only during lunch time, cannot possibly become great minds. Creative intelligence can only serve a purpose in environments where human beings are granted freedom, fair competition and high quality education.
In conclusion, we constantly say that we are so proud of young Turks. But, in reality, we have don’t have the slightest idea about what they want or what they need. Employers say, “Young people don’t want to work with us”. Well, they don’t want to work with you because today’s successful firms are not fundamentally top-down hierarchies. Systems that control the work, not the people, help businesses improve and grow. In Turkey, on the other hand, bosses are still obsessed with running their companies with obsolete hierarchies of the previous century.
Managing a company is just like conducting an orchestra. We need executives that improve the quality of their teams, encouraging them to work in a total harmony. Therefore, we will need everyone to their jobs in the best possible way, which can be achieved more painlessly and quickly with digital transformation.
As you see, my friends, we have a lot of ground to cover before tackling the issue of interest rates.
