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EKONOMİK
FORUM
Hisarcıklıoğlu
calls on Arab
League to
cooperate
C
oming together with the ambassa-
dors of the Arab League-member
countries at a business lunch, M. Rifat Hisar-
cıklıoğlu, Chairman of the Union of Cham-
bers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey
(TOBB), said that the Arab League repre-
sented a huge economy of USD 2,8 trillion
and underlined the need to grow trade
with the League members. Hisarcıklıoğlu
said, “The whole region covering Arab sta-
tes is very important for Turkey. We are all
brothers and neighbors. Growing trade is
the only way for us to increase our welfare
and reduce economic inequality across the
region. Removing the barriers to trade can
improve politics as well. It is important for
our national governments to remove the
obstacles for the private sector to grow.”
SMART CITIES
T
urkey entered a new era with the pro-
mulgation of Law No. 6306 on Trans-
formation of Buildings under Disaster Risk
in 2012. As the process of urban transfor-
mation has been launched in risky areas
across Turkey, urban planning experts call
on the government to embrace a modern
urbanization policy while complaining
that the process is going at a very slow
pace. Playing a leading role in the urban
transformation process, the Mass Housing
Authority (TOKI) and the Ministry of Envi-
ronment and Urban Planning have both
rolled up their sleeves to build “Smart
Cities”. To that end, their intention is to fo-
cus on a new urbanization approach in an
effort to develop ecological cities where
less energy and water is consumed and
the existing transportation problems are
solved by means of new mass transpor-
tation systems.
New goal in urban
transformation: