EGEMEN BAGIS GIVES AN INTERVIEW TO CNN INTERNATIONAL

Minister for EU Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagis gave an interview to CNN International and answered the questions whether Egypt should follow the Turkish model or not.

Upon a question indicating that the Egyptian economy grew 5% last year while the Turkish economy grew by more than 8%, and should Egypt follow the Turkish model and open up its market to investment, Bagis said:

"The AK Party was elected into government 16 months after its establishment but the founders of AK Party had been practicing politics in various parties and some of them were practicing business and had gone through the difficulties of red tape and bureaucracy and they knew that in order for us to attract more foreign direct investment, in order for Turkish economy to grow faster, in order for us to be a credible country for foreign investment we need to eradicate some of the red tape and bureaucracy and that's why AK Party prepared a party programme and an action plan for the government which was implemented in the aftermath of the elections and made Turkey a very business friendly country.

Our focus has always been the people because it's the people who have elected us into office. And when we came into office, the per capita income in Turkey was around 3 thousand dollars and now it has increased to more than 12 thousand dollars. We are trying our best to attract foreign direct investment, to bring new technologies and to produce more for less and provide better living standards for our people. Of course the European Union perspective of the nation has also had a very important influence on the whole process because with a country that is in line with the EU acquis, we are trying our best to increase the democratic standards, human rights standards and increase the wealth of the people."

Upon a question on "the role of the military, and what was the lesson Egypt could learn as the military was much respected both in Egypt and Turkey" Bagis said:

"The founders of the Republic, founders of modern Turkey, were all members of military of the time. And they had a vision; their dream was to make sure that Turkey catches up with the contemporary civilizations. And today's contemporary civilizations, as far as I'm concerned, is the European Union norms and standards, that's why our military has been very forthcoming in helping us with the reforms in Turkey. And the former Chief of Staff of the Turkish Military had said that EU was the most important vehicle to achieve Ataturk's dream of catching up with the civilian and contemporary civilization. I think the Egyptian military can play a very important role as well. Because the Egyptian military is one of the most respected militaries in the Middle East and they have very well connections, networks with the international counterparts and they can help their county establish the democratic standards, human rights standards and also economic wealth standards that are present in the nations around them."

Source: AA