Turkey willing to improve relations with Asia

Developing Asian economies have been an impetus for the global economy with a 6.6 growth in 2012, said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister for economy Ali Babacan on Tuesday. Babacan delivered a speech at the 38th Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank Group (IDB) in Tajikistan, according to a statement released from his office. Tajikistan had an impressive growth with 7.5 percent and the inflation remained at a single-digit level in 2012, saidBabacan. Babacan said problems should be solved for sustainable growth and competitiveness in Asia despite the strong economic performance the continent has displayed, adding allAsian countries have common problems in raising living standards of growing population as well as producing goods and services. Babacan said World economy faces high risks due to Europe's debt crisis and the deficit of medium term financial plans of the United States and Japan along with European politicians' slow response in order to increase the resilience of banking systems. He saidAsian countries should put more effort to improve trade with other member countries of IDB and increase foreign investment for sustainable growth. "Islamic banking sector has grown over 30 percent in the past five years in Turkey, surpassing traditional banking sector. Similarly, Indonesia had a 40 percent growth in Islamic banking sector while traditional banking sector grew by 17 percent in the same period," Babacan added.