At the turn of the last decade, Turkey has chosen to liberalize its economy and enable its private sector to take the lead in generating growth and employment. Major strides have been taken to revamp conditions for entry, operations and exit for both national and international business by completely dismantling bureaucratic barriers and streamlining procedures based on a thorough deregulation effort. The completion of the remaining reforms in the public sector combined with an intensive privatization program and targeted customs union with the EU scheduled for the end of 1995, will make the Turkish economy one of the most open and internationally integrated markets in the whole nation.

Turkey has been the center of trade and enterprise in the region for centuries and its location between the continents of Europe and Asia remains the crossroads between the East and the West. With a population of close to 80 million, Turkey has the largest single market in the region. It is rich in human resources, its business community has developed a very high entrepreneurial spirit and experience about the market oriented approach and it possesses a good mix of skilled, semi-skilled and highly qualified and productive work force.