Terms economic reforms and transparency must for sustainable development and economic growth
Addressing a representative delegation of the Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) at a local hotel, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that democratic accountability and economic stability were a must for any nation to grow, adding that continuity of democratic process in Pakistan was a must to help the country face the challenges it was faced with.
The Turkish premier said that economic reforms and transparency was a must for sustainable development and economic growth.
The visiting dignitary said that Turkish government and its people will always be friends with any government in Pakistan, as both were tied in centuries-old bond of brotherhood, with shared religious, cultural and historic traditions.
However, the Turkish leader called for measures to translate these brotherly relations into economic terms, saying that despite cordiality among the political leadership of both the brotherly nations, the mutual trade was lagging far behind.
“The friendship between Turkey and Pakistan is emotional but strange. The peoples and leaders of both the brotherly countries are tied in strong bonds and both turn to help each-other in crisis situations. However, the mutual trade share between the two states needs to be increased significantly,” he said.
He said that in terms of bilateral trade, the ratio was only 0.01 percent in favour of Pakistan while it was one percent in favour of Turkey which did not reflect the brotherhood and love between both the countries.
“This is why we have decided to bring some rationality to our mutual cooperation. We have started to negotiate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Pakistan. We have also decided to increase the number of flights and the destinations of the flights of Turkish Airline to Pakistan to overcome distances as both the countries are not immediate neighbours.”
He added that Turkey had also decided to link itself with Pakistan and Iran through rail link besides signing agreements to build locomotives jointly with Pakistan.
“We are also entering into agreements of cooperation with Pakistan in energy and Agriculture sectors,” he said, adding that new avenues of cooperation would be explored to increase the mutual trade.
Commenting over Pakistan-Afghanistan relations, the Turkish premier expressed his delight over the positive cooperation between Afghan and Pakistani governments, stating that Turkey has initiated the trilateral summit between the three neighbouring states and he was happy that both the governments were improving their bilateral cooperation.
“Tensions on Pakistani borders have always been a source of concern for Turkey. We are happy that positive messages have also been exchanged between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian premier Narendra Modi. It would help stabilise the regional development,” he added. Responding to questions, Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Muslims were facing a huge challenge of modernity and globalisation.
“On one hand, the Muslims are facing the autocratic regimes and dictatorships while on the other, we have to deal with the terrorists like Daesh (ISIL). Autocracy and sectarianism and ethnic divisions are a by-product of globalisation. Only those states would survive these challenges, who have leaders with political and intellectual vision. Rule of law, good governance and sustained economic development are must to fight these modern-day challenges,” he said. He said those countries who have no visionary leaders will collapse.
Answering another question, the Turkish premier rubbished the notion of any imprisoning any journalist in Turkey, saying that no journalist was behind the bars for criticizing the government. He said that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) had lodged a complaint with him about the alleged imprisonment of ten journalists in Turkey.
“When we asked them to provide us a list, only one of those imprisoned was a journalist who was released immediately. Other nine individuals mentioned in the list were accused of street crimes, including burglary and robbery, who were behind the bars since year 2007,” Davutoglu said. He said that though he had won two court cases against Turkish media outlets, he did not take action against them as his party believed in freedom of the press.