WHILE the past 40 years may have seen the Turkish Cypriot economy stagnating in backward isolation, things may be changing – albeit slowly.
“People are voting with their feet and pockets, and they are way ahead of the politicians,” says Costas Apostolides, director of the Highway Communications business consultancy, during a press briefing yesterday to launch a two-day conference on how to achieve economic convergence between the two parts of Cyprus starting today.
The conference, which takes place at the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce in northern Nicosia today and tomorrow, will look at ways in which measures can be taken to boost the north’s economy within the constraints of the current status quo on the island, while also seeking to look further ahead to a day when a solution to the island’s divide has been found.
“We are trying to reduce the costs of reunification,” said Ayse Donmezer, the one-time ‘economy minister’ of the north. She now works at the Management Centre in northern Nicosia, a body that is working with the Turkish Cypriot business community to help the north’s fledgling economy grow.
With the high cost of reunification cited as one of the main reasons for the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan, the benefits of reducing the costs should be appreciated both sides of the Green Line.
Bulent Kanol, the man leading fronting the Management Centre, is realistic about the uphill struggle that lies ahead.
“The purpose is, while taking into account the difficulties, to look at what can be done to get things moving. We are not going to solve the problem, but I am confident there will be ideas to be picked up by the policy makers,” he says.
Apostolides too is confident things will move beyond the political stalemate and the “psychological barriers” that restrict trade between the two communities. He believes there is already “a lot going on”, and that with encouragement business contacts will grow. He cites the movement of tourists across the Green Line and the official policy of the Cyprus government of encouraging the employment of Turkish Cypriots in the south.
He also hailed the raising to 135 euros the amount of shopping Greek Cypriots and other Europeans could bring into the south from the north, as well as the inclusion of 53 Turkish Cypriot businesses in the International Fair in the south. Apostolides says he is heartened by the sight of Turkish Cypriots seeking “bargains” and “greater variety” in the south, and Greek Cypriots on a virtual shopping frenzy in the north over the Easter holiday period.
But, for the north it seems it is not simply a case of trying to sell more, as Maxwell Watson of Wolfson College, Oxford points out.
“If you have trade, you have to have similar standards,” he says.
Watson believes there are three factors that will help bring the north up to the high standards required by the south and the EU. The first is the Green Line regulation that allows Turkish Cypriots to sell a limited selection of products in the south and to use the ports of the south to export to the EU. Second is the fact that an “economic boom” is already taking place in the north – something that will almost by default help raise product standards. And thirdly, there is the newfound stability of the Turkish Lira.
“There has been a fundamental change in the monetary environment that is going to boost investment and lending,” he says.
Today’s conference promises to look beyond the political stalemate and blinkered approach of the politicians to find ways in which trade on a relatively level playing field could be envisaged for Cypriots of all kinds. And while none among the speakers will be painting a rosy picture of the way things currently stand, they will be doing all they can do under the circumstances to forge a way forward.
The conference begins at 9am today at the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Commerce and includes many speakers from both sides of the Cyprus divide, including Dr George Vassilou, who prior to the referendum on the Annan plan presented a detailed study on the plan’s positive economic implications for both sides. Speakers from seven other countries will also be taking part.
