Erdogan's 2023 grand economic vision: down the drain?

Ambitious economic goals, like making Turkey one of the world's 10 largest economies, set by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, are now less likely than ever before, according to market analysts.

One of the party's much-touted 2023 goals was to bring Turkey's telecommunications revenues up to $160 billion by 2023. This target will be very hard to achieve, according to a recent report released by the Freelance Telecommunication Businesses Association (TELKODER). 

“According to the 2014 Government Plan, the communication technologies market size was $27.7 billion. The telecommunications sector generates a total of $17.2 billion here, while $10.5 billion comes from information technologies. The target set for the sector by 2023, to reach $160 billion in annual revenue, is unrealistic,” TELKODER President Yusuf Ata Arıtak said on Thursday in İstanbul. Arıtak stressed that the sector would need to grow at an annual rate of 20 percent to reach the government's target. 

“Either this target is not realistic or new quantum leaps will have to be made to reach it,” Arıtak said. 

Similarly, according to a report prepared by the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen's Association (MÜSİAD), without establishing a strong intellectual property rights regime in Turkey -- a necessity to foster innovation -- it will be impossible for the country to reach its export targets by 2023. 

According to the report, authored by lawyer Cahit Suluk and published last month, as long as Turkey is unable to compete in international markets for value-added and innovative products, the $500 billion export target is unrealistic. 

The report also says that Turkey, despite being the 17th largest economy in the world, remains unable to develop a single global brand.

The year 2023 marks the centennial of the Turkish Republic, and the government has set the ambitious economic goals of becoming the world's 10th largest economy, exporting $500 billion worth of goods and raising its gross domestic product per capita to $25,000. 

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, however, said on Friday that without establishing a strong legal system and a well-functioning judicial system it will be difficult to hit the 2023 economic targets. 

“We want to see an independent legal system that is, however, in line with international legal norms in Turkey. All our efforts are for this end,” Babacan said at the inauguration of an AK Party campaign office in the Çankaya district of Ankara.