Evaluation of the competitiveness and the business environment in Turkey.

Abstract

Διπλωματική εργασία--Πανεπιστήμιο Μακεδονίας, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2012.The present paper is an evaluation of Turkey’s national competitiveness and business environment. It is based on data of two prominent Publications: Global Competitiveness Report (World Economic Forum) and Doing Business (World Bank), this paper presents a measurement of Turkey’s national economy in comparison to the economies of the Balkans, EU27 and China. Simultaneously, it attempts to find the positive and negative aspects of the performance of the Turkish economy and to propose possible scenarios of improvement. It shows Turkey’s position within the Balkans starting from almost eleven years back showing the improvements that might have been done throughout those years in several of areas such as institutions, infrastructure, macroeconomic environment and the rest of the pillars of Global Competitiveness Index. At the same time, it calculates how easy is to start a business not only in the country but also in comparison with the rest of the Balkan countries calculated by the data of the ten pillars of Doing Business Index. From our research it is shown that Turkey moved up by 16 places in this year’s Global Competitiveness Index, securing the 43rd spot in the 144-country survey prepared by the World Economic Forum. It is characterized by a large market which classifies the country in the 15th position having an intense local competition and a vibrant business sector which derives important efficiency gains. Turkey also benefits from its developed infrastructure with a good average in the quality of overall infrastructure, the quality of roads and air transport. Turkey’s position is above the EU27 average according to the results in the global ranking. In addition, the results in the Balkan region place Turkey as the best performed Balkan country in competition leaving Slovenia, Bulgaria ahead