Turkish finance minister says Turkey, EU need each other

ISTANBUL (A.A) - Turkey's finance minister said on Friday that Turkey and the European Union (EU) needed each other. Mehmet Simsek said Turkey needed the EU for change and transformation. "I am sure that the EU needs Turkey's dynamism," Simsek said during the Conference on "Turkey-EU: Common Interests Revisited" organized in Istanbul by the Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists of Turkey (TUSKON) and European Policy Center. Simsek said Turkey was grateful to EU as a part of its change and transformation stemmed from EU membership process in the last decade. The minister said Turkey had a strong economic integration to the EU as it was making half of its exports to the union, 60 percent of tourists visiting Turkey were coming from member states, and 80 percent of foreign direct investments to Turkey were EU-oriented. Simsek said Turkey had revealed a cautious medium-term economic program and sustained fiscal discipline in the last few years.