|
AL GOMHOUREYA
Al Gomhoureya Correspondents: The Turkish Republic
of Northern Cyprus
By Al Sayed Hani
August 2, 2006
Despite isolation and
sieges, the Turkish Republic of Northem Cyprus
achieves the highest development rate in the world.The
average income per person reached 11.000 US$
annually.The Minister of Economy and Tourism in the
government of the Turkish Republic of Northem
Cyprus Dervis Deniz, declared that his country was
able to achieve, during the last two years, a great
economic development despite the commercial
sanctions and that the average incomne for each
person has reached almost 11.000 US$ anually. The
Minister said, in a meeting with the representatives
of different international newspapers that the
Turkish Cypriots have suffered a lot from
international isolation as well as the commercial,
air and maritime sanctions imposed on them ever
since they declared their state in 15 November 1983.
At that time, their state was destructed and almost
hasn't any infrastructure not to mention that there
were no sources for income. The only "life tube" was
coming from Turkey, which has acknowledged their
country and remained the only gate for them to and
from the external world. The Minister explained that
these sanctions have prevented his country from
achieving the desired economic development as the
average income for each person remained within the
limit of 4500 US$ annually until the year 2003,
while it has jumped to 16.000 US$ in southem Cyprus,
the mater that created a gap between the two sides.
He added that the situation remained unchanged until
the referendum made in the two sides of the island
in 24 April 2004 on Annan' s plan to unify the
island and share the authority. However, the Greek
Cypriots refused the plan and Turkish Cypriots
approved it. Since this was the plan sponsored by
the UN and since it was an embodiment for the will
of international community, the world started to
reconsider its stance concerning the Turkish
Cypriots and started to sympathize with them, put
confidence in them and get convinced that their
country could be a destination for tourism and
investment. A new era started in the history of the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The number of
tourists increased from 250 thousand tourists every
year in 2003, they were increased to 300 thousand
with a 20% increase in just one year. The number has
increased again in 2005 with another 15%. This fast
increase in the number of tourists was accompanied
with new investments and an increase in the number
of touristic facilities. The investors started to
arrive, started to buy lands and construct touristic
projects. From our side, we encouraged them by
giying them the lands for free and exempted them
from any taxes or custom fees on the materials they
import from outside the country for ten years. The
country started to witness great construction
activities in its different areas and infrastructure
projects were extended to reach everywhere. Foreign
investments were increased and we expect it to reach
1 billion with the inauguration of new touristic
areas during the coming three months.
The Minister added that
this sudden development in tourism and construction
fields led to case of great economic booming and
this led the average of annual income for each
person from 7500 US$, in 2004, to reach 10.5
thousand US$ in 2005 and now it is getting close to
11.000 US$. This is considered as the fasted growth
rate in the world. The Minister said "we could
achieved all this while we are still under isolation
and sanctions and while we face difficulties in
import, export and aviation as people cannot come
directly to our country and they should go first to
Turkey and then to us. Can you imagine what would
have happened if there were no difficulties, we
would have achieved more and more economic
development. Our county is beautiful and the
government encourages people on working and
investing.
Turkey's assistance
After he finished
talking to journalists, the Minister opened the door
for discussions. The first question addressed to the
minister was regarding Turkey' s role in this
economic upturn, in the Turkish republic of northem
Cyprus, he replied by saying that the Turkish aids
to his country are going in two channels. The first
is the funding of deficiency in government budget,
which is less than 50 million dollars annually. And
the second is supervising the projects of developing
and expanding the infrastructure that includes the
construction of roads and extension of water,
electricity and communications networks. The
minister also added that his country has signed,
last year, an agreement with Turkey with 550 million
US$ for the development of infrastructure. Answering
another question regarding the EU aids for the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and its role in
the improvement of economic situations, the minister
has totally denied any kind of aids from the EU to
his country. |
Articals and Comments 