The Euromed Forum Held in Barcelona TEPAV Director Güven Sak delivered a speech on Turkey’s experiences in social policy and inclusive growth.
BARCELONA – The Sixth Euromed Forum carried out by the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed) was held in Barcelona on 27-28 June 2013. This year’s Forum, themed “Social inclusion in the aftermath of the Arab Spring: From politics to policies” was organized jointly by IEMed, TEPAV, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics. The Forum hosted decision makers and academics from Northern, Southern and Eastern Mediterranean countries. The Forum was attended by Fathallah Sijilmassi, Secretary General of the Union for the Mediterranean, Ibrahim Saif, Jordanian Minister of Planning and International Cooperation, Salaheddine Mezouar, former Moroccan Minister of Economy and Finance, Latifa Elabida, former Secretary of State, Morocco as well as TEPAV Director Güven Sak and TEPAV Economic Policy Analyst Esen Çağlar.
In the first session of the program, Sak delivered a speech on Turkey’s experience in social policy and inclusive growth. He stressed that although they were considered social policy tools, subsidies in the long-term constrained economic development in Southern Mediterranean countries. Citing the example of Egypt, he said that energy subsidies that put a large burden on the budget supported households with low income. But on the other hand, the subsidies worked in the benefit of European consumers through cement and fertilizer exports constituting 25 percent of the county’s total exports. Sak stressed that there were important lessons Arab countries could learn from the economic and social outcomes of Turkey’s reformation experiences in the 1980s and after the 2001 crisis.
Expressing that Turkey trailed behind OECD countries but outperformed almost all North African countries in terms of institutional structure and regulatory framework, he stated that economic development in the south of Mediterranean would follow institutional development. He said, “Western countries think that signing free trade agreements (FTAs) with us would solve our problems. FTAs do not bring economic development if the respective country does not have a conducive investment ecosystem or the required reforms to reap the benefits of FTAs. Policy reforms are vital for FTAs to bring welfare.”
You can watch the speech of Sak by visiting the TEPAV Videos.
Details about the Forum and the program are accessible on IEMed’s website at the below link: http://www.iemed.org/actualitat-en/noticies/quines-reformes-en-politiques-socials-a-la-mediterrania
