ANKARA
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek has said, "This year may be the year of breaking the privatization record."
Speaking to a tv channel on Wednesday, Minister Simsek stated they were more optimistic about 2013 because there was an improvement in the global background.
He underlined that this year he would not be able to attend Davos meetings and instead he would come together with important global funds in London for two days and New York for three days as meetings were coinciding. He added that he would get a chance to explain Turkey to many investors individually or as in groups.
Furthermore, he said that in the field of privatization, their priority was taking steps which have the characteristics of structural reforms.
He said their priority was the privatization of sectors which the private sector can operate well.
"In sum up, we are assertive in the field of privatization. On the other side, we are assertive in revenues too. Even from the first and second days of this year, we made an income transfer which would cover the privatization targets of the whole year. From the first day, we transferred 4.2 billion Turkish Liras to the Turkish Treasury. I am hopeful that we may break the privatization record this year."
