Earlier this year American trend forecaster Gerald Celente, who has an interesting track record of accurate economic predictions, pointed to a bright future for Turkey. The country, he said, was in an excellent position to ride out the world’s current financial woes because ‘it has learnt from past experiences’. “Turkey owes this potential to a long history,” said Celente. “The country has inherited the legacy of one of the world’s few large empires. Turkish society still preserves this heritage, which is continuing to contribute to enriching the country both socially and culturally. Strong family ties along with deep-rooted traditions are additional advantages to this end.
“Turkey values old values more than some Western countries do. This is a prominent factor.”
Well, Celente has been wrong before, but in this case his comments might turn out to be prescient. Just before he made his predictions, a conference in Istanbul was praising Turkey as an emerging power in the field of renewables, particularly wind power.
“With an average growth in power demand of eight per cent each year, this means that if the 20,000 MW target is met, wind power will cover one fifth of Turkey’s power demand by 2023” said Christian Kjaer, Chief Executive of EWEA, told the Wind Power Turkey 2009 Conference. “Wind is clean, indigenous and above all can start producing power quickly – crucial for a country whose power demand is soaring. With huge wind energy potential, ambitious government targets and a recent track-record of rapid wind energy growth, Turkey could be one of the future wind energy movers and shakers, but numerous administrative hurdles must be overcome to attract more investments and manufacturing to the country.”
Kjaer’s words are very encouraging, but he sounds a word of warning that perhaps reflects Celente’s comment that Turkey still adheres to old values, and is reliant on the bureaucracy of yesteryear in a world which appears to fluctuate far more frequently than ever before. However, before we examine the negatives, let’s look at some of the positives.
