Middle East

Turkey opens "window of opportunity" with reform: OECD

10/21/2004

Turkey has opened up a window of opportunity with market reforms since a deep crisis four years ago and progress over EU membership would give a big boost, the OECD said in a report.
The report came as Turkey, recovering from severe economic distress in 2001-2002, is a focus of international attention over its attempts to become a member of the European Union.
OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston described the recovery under the reform program as "stunning".
"The survey shows economic performances that are stunning since 2001, with remarquable macroeconomics," he told a press conference on Thursday.
The report praised Turkey for progress made through reforms, with growth now running at more than 8.0 percent, but said it had to do more to promote confidence and attract investment and remained at risk from "boom-and-bust" disruption.
OECD economist Andrew Dean said that the reforms had opened a "window of opportunity".
The report itself said: "The recent recommendation by the EU commission to start EU accession negotiations -- if confirmed by the European Council in December -- promises to strengthen the international anchors and could underpin Turkey's shift to a new economic regime."
The council is scheduled to vote in Brussels on December 17 on whether to invite Turkey to begin talks on its possible admission to the EU.
Dean added: "If the European Council follows the recommendations by the European Commission, this window of opportunity will open further.
"We certainly believe that the accession of Turkey to the EU would be very positive."
The Paris-based OECD was to present its Turkey report later at a news conference in the presence of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The report addressed Turkey's emergence from its worst recession since World War II, brought on by the 2001-2002 crises, sparked by rows over banking reform and then over corruption.
Inflation soared and the currency plunged. The entire economic programme, underwritten by the IMF, fell apart. The government, since replaced in elections, subsequently obtained a 16-billion-dollar (12.8-billion-euro) stand-by deal with the International Monetary Fund conditional on a three-year plan of major structural reforms.
The IMF deal is set to end in February 2005 and Turkish officials are currently engaged in talks with the Fund for a new stand-by deal.
The OECD Economic Survey of Turkey published Thursday emphasized the vulnerability of the economy to "boom-and-bust" cycle of its past.
The Turkish economy was among the fastest-growing OECD economies, with gross domestic product was set to exceed government growth targets of 8.0 percent, after slumping by 7.5 percent in 2001 and rebounding to 8.0 in 2002 and 6.0 percent in 2003.
Inflation had declined sharply and was poised to fall below 10 percent for the first time in 30 years.
But Turkey, the OECD's poorest country, faced three vicious circle "traps" that could stifle the recovery: low confidence in the emerging institutional set-up, weak governance and an informal, or underground, economy that accounts for more than half of all employment.
"Addressing these problems would make it possible for Turkey to enter into a virtuous circle of improved confidence, strengthened governance and increased formalisation that could underpin a sustained period of strong growth," the report said.
The OECD said Turkey had made good progress in reducing its public debt, a main weakness following the crises when it stood at 90 percent of gross national product in 2001 -- to a ratio of about 70 percent at end-2003.
Ability to pay interest on the debt depended greatly on investor confidence, and the overall climate had to be underpinned by public support for reform.
The government should not be tempted to ease taxes in good times and should use extra tax revenue from growth to cut debt.
A widening current account deficit, which may exceed 4.0 percent of GDP this year, and "paltry" inflows of investment were worrying because the country might have to raise yet more debt to fund the deficit.
A major challenge was the huge informal (undeclared) economy, which narrowed the tax base and reduced improvements of productivity.

BDWN

Journalism By Remote Control'

Oct 21, 2004

' press box Media criticism. "Journalism by Remote Control" Baghdad correspondents talk about covering the war from afar with Iraqi staffers and stringers. By Jack Shafer Posted Wednesday, Oct. 20, 2004, at 8:07 PM PT A year ago, the Western press corps felt secure enough to travel Baghdad and throughout a good deal of Iraq to report its stories. But since the April battle of Fallujah, violence has convulsed parts of the country and increased suspicion and hostility has made the most trivial passage across town for a government press briefing a potentially death-defying adventure. Washington Post foreign correspondent Rajiv Chandrasekaran, who recently left Iraq after running the paper's Baghdad bureau for 18 months, describes for the paper's Oct. 17 edition how the walls have closed in: By this summer, every road leading out of Baghdad had become too dangerous to travel. North to Mosul, west to Ramadi, northeast to Baqubah, southeast to Kut, south to Hilla, Karbala, Najaf and Basra—all had turned into "red routes" in the parlance of security specialists, meaning too dangerous to travel. The capital itself was a patchwork of red (no-go) and yellow (proceed with extreme caution) zones, surrounding the American-controlled Green Zone. Neighborhoods where I had visited Iraqi friends for lunch were now too insecure to enter. And even if I was willing to chance it, my Iraqi friends didn't want to risk being seen allowing a foreigner into their house. To keep routine trips from morphing into suicide missions, most Western reporters have cut back on travel. Reporters who might have been out and about constantly last year reduced daily outings to three or so in the early summer in the name of security. Now, they may venture out just once a day in Baghdad, but not before carefully plotting their excursions. Many of them feel "stalked" and hunted. Chandrasekaran says the Post bureau put a halt to all non-essential travel, parties, and dinners on the town by September. Continue Article To compensate for their loss of mobility, most Western reporters have increasingly turned to their Iraqi news stringers in the provinces and trusted Iraqi staffers—translators, drivers, fixers—to collect first-hand information from news scenes and conduct interviews with Iraqis.
'Chandrasekaran calls this kind of reporting "journalism by remote control." Although he says no Western journalist is happy about having to cover the Iraq news from a remove—"No question about it, it affects the quality of reporting"—he and his colleagues say the work-around is better than no reporting at all’.

BDWN

Iran to Consider EU Nuclear Offer, No Deal Yet

Thu Oct 21, 2004

Iran has not agreed to an offer by the European Union to receive nuclear technology in exchange for abandoning its uranium enrichment program, but it will consider the proposal, an Iranian official said on Thursday.
"It is just at the initial stage. The matter has to be considered both sides," Sirius Naseri, a member of the Iranian delegation at a meeting with French, British and German officials, told reporters. He said the Europeans and Iranians had agreed to carry on dialogue on the issue and that the EU trio had presented their offer in "more or less clear terms."
Iran has maintained its nuclear program is only for power generation and that it will never give up uranium enrichment -- a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear reactors or material for atom bombs.
But the United States believes Iran is using talks with the EU to buy time to acquire the capability to build a nuclear bomb.
If Iran rejects the EU offer outright, diplomats say most European nations will back U.S. demands that Tehran be reported to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) meets in November.

BDWN

ZTE Of China To Undertake Major Wireless Project In Saudi Arabia
ZTE IN MAJOR MIDDLE EAST WIRELESS LOCAL LOOP (WLL) CONTRACT WIN

21 Oct, 2004 - The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/-One of the world’s most challenging WLL installation projects is to be undertaken by ZTE Corporation of China, a leading global supplier of advanced telecommunications infrastructure, in Saudi Arabia for the Saudi Telecom Company (STC).
The contract, won against fierce international competition, will lead to thousands of Saudi people in outlying areas gaining access to the latest telecommunications technology for the first time. ZTE engineers will be installing the new WLL network, which incorporates the company’s world-renowned CDMA technology, despite difficulties such as desert temperatures reaching up to 50oC.
"ZTE is totally committed to the development of telecoms across the Middle East and STC were able to assess our capabilities against an impressive backdrop of work already completed in this part of the world," said Mr. Zhao Xian Ming, general manager of ZTE’s CDMA product division.
"We are delighted to have signed this latest contract and we look forward to delivering against it.”
This is the latest success in Saudi Arabia for ZTE. Earlier this year the Corporation announced that it was to provide a videoconferencing system across the whole of the country in a contract with JCCS (Jeraisy Computer and Communication Services), one of the country’s largest and most successful computer and communication companies. ZTE is creating a network using its advanced BAVO (Brings All Visions in One) system and connecting the five major cities in Saudi Arabia. The network will later be expanded to cover the whole country.
In the past few years, ZTE has established a leading position in the Middle East and North Africa. Earlier this month ZTE announced that it had made the first ever 3G call in Tunisia after winning a contract to develop the country’s 3G network. Also in 2004 ZTE was selected by Egypt Telecom to construct a large-scale CDMA network covering the Nile River Delta. In 2003, ZTE was selected to build Africa’s largest CDMA WLL project in Algeria and ZTE’s GSM products have won large-scale applications in Nigeria and Ethiopia.
Today’s Saudi success comes a day after the Corporation announced its work with China Unicom to successfully develop the world’s first 2 Megabyte (2MB) CDMA Short Message Service Centre (SMSC). This development will considerably increase the traffic flow carried by a single signalling link, thus ensuring the exploitation of Jiangsu Unicom’s CDMA Short Message Service, and reducing greatly its networking complexity and running cost.
ZTE has supplied over 15 million lines of CDMA equipment around the world, making it the largest Chinese CDMA equipment supplier in the world. ZTE has also won CDMA contracts in Kuwait, Indonesia and Nepal.
About ZTE: ZTE Corporation is China's largest listed telecommunications equipment provider specializing in offering customized network solutions for telecom carriers worldwide. The company develops and manufactures telecommunications equipment for fixed, mobile, data and optical networks, intelligent networks and next generation networks as well as mobile phones.

BDWN

Midwest, Iraq focal points on campaign

October 21, 2004

President Bush and challenger John Kerry accused each other of misjudging the stakes and lacking the leadership to deal with Iraq and terrorism as they campaigned 60 miles apart Wednesday in Iowa, a state Bush narrowly lost four years ago.
"The next commander in chief must lead us to victory in this war and you cannot win a war when you don't believe you're fighting one," Bush said in Mason City, a northern Iowa farming community. "My opponent also misunderstands our battle against insurgents and terrorists in Iraq, calling Iraq a 'a diversion from the war on terrorism.'
Kerry, campaigning in Waterloo, said Bush failed to grasp what the United States faces in Iraq, where more than 1,100 U.S. soldiers have been killed. "If President Bush cannot recognize the problems in Iraq, he will not fix them. I do recognize them and I will fix them."
With time running out before the Nov. 2 election, national polls say the race is very close, with some showing a slight advantage for Bush. Polls in key swing states like Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin also show the two candidates running about even.
Iraq and terrorism dominated the debate Wednesday as Bush focused on Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin - all states that went against him four years ago and where polls show him in a close race with his Democratic rival.
After Iowa, Kerry concentrated on Pennsylvania before heading to Ohio. Four years ago, Bush lost Pennsylvania and won Ohio; this year the race is tight in both states.
"The president says he's a leader. Well, Mr. President, look behind you, there's hardly anyone there," Kerry said, pointing out considerable allied opposition to the war. "It's not leadership if we haven't built the strongest alliance possible and if America is going almost alone."
Saying Bush was trying to focus the election on national security, Kerry said, "I welcome that debate. I believe a president must be able to defend this country and fight for the middle class at the same time."
Bush, trying to depict his opponent as lacking the credentials to be commander in chief, said Kerry was guilty of "a fundamental misunderstanding of the war we face and that is a very dangerous thinking."
He said the threat posed by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who has pledged allegiance to Osama bin Laden and is believed behind beheadings in Iraq, "shows how wrong" Kerry's thinking is.
"If Zarqawi and his associates were not busy fighting American forces, does Senator Kerry think he would be leading a productive and useful life?" Bush asked. "Of course not. And that is why Iraq is no diversion."
Keeping the focus on terrorism, Vice President Dick Cheney said he was concerned terrorists will try to disrupt the elections, as they did with train bombings in Madrid last March.
"I think if they could get off a shot, I expect that they may well try it," Cheney said in an interview on Fox News Channel. "But at this stage to say we've got specific evidence of an attack that's going to happen during a particular window - no, we can't say that."
While Kerry and Bush traded charges, there was a moment of embarrassment - and an apology - from the senator's wife over her remarks about first lady Laura Bush.
Teresa Heinz Kerry, in an interview published by USA Today, had said she didn't know whether Laura Bush had ever had "a real job." She apologized for having forgotten about the first lady's 10-year stint as a schoolteacher and librarian.
The White House, meanwhile, came under criticism from Kerry's camp for a flurry of pre-election speeches being given by Condoleezza Rice, Bush's national security adviser, in political battleground states including Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Traditionally, the national security adviser does not engage in overt politics.
"George Bush will go to any length to cling to power, even if it means diverting his national security adviser from doing her job," said Sen. John Edwards, Kerry's running mate.
White House communications director Dan Bartlett defended Rice's speeches: "We're a nation at war, we're a nation that has troops in harm's way and the president has a foreign policy staff that helps explain the actions we are taking."
Bush campaign chairman Marc Racicot accused Democrats of undermining public confidence in the election with last-minute lawsuits.
Racicot said legal efforts to change election rules can "cause problems for election officials and bring chaos ... and circus-like activity that is very confusing and difficult for the American people to understand."
Democrats have sued over alleged ballot and voting restrictions in several battleground states. So have independent groups such as the League of Women Voters and outside groups allied with Kerry.

BDWN