According to the Global Competition Index, Turkey became one of the countries that increased its competitive power at the most in 2006 and drawing ahead by 12 rows, ranked 59 within 125 countries 1 . Maintenance of this growth and establishment of a sustainable growth process are indispensable requirements for an increase in social wealth, which is the final objective of all economic policies. Therefore, today everyone should focus on the things to be done for the sustainability of the growth process in our economy rather than the daily market transactions. When successful country samples regarding growth and development processes are considered, we see that there are certain phases in the growth process. These phases are growth based on factor accumulation; increase in efficiency; research and development activities and innovations respectively. Turkey is currently going through a process of growth based on increase in efficiency. However, ensuring the permanency of growth in the medium and long-term necessitates focusing on the research and development activities besides increases in efficiency and going through a process of growth based on innovations. Dear Guests, It is obligatory for the private sector to establish medium and long-term strategies rather than shortterm ones, in order to last long within the domestic and foreign competition environment that is gradually becoming more challenging owing to both the changing domestic dynamics and the increasing openness.
In this respect, via ensuring the implementation of active policies to create employment and providing resources for new investments, the investment atmosphere should be improved by strengthening the relationship between the real and the financial sector. Additionally, educational policies oriented towards increasing the labor power compatible with the labor demand should be put into effect. Besides, having the unregistered employment registered, should be given priority because it leads to unfair competition and this necessitates decreasing the taxes and other burdens on employment gradually. Dear Guests, Finally, I wish to briefly mention current account deficit, which frequently occupies the agenda. Current account deficit is one of the sensitive points of the Turkish economy. With a retrospective look, we see that current account deficit grew faster in the periods when growth rate accelerated due to the structural peculiarities of the Turkish economy. The periods when the current account deficit  BIS Review 28/2007  7  decreased or surpluses were experienced have been the years in which the growth rate decreased or crises broke out. This structure shows us that the current account deficit bears a structural quality rather than a cyclical one. This process can be identified as followings: improvements recorded with respect to the macroeconomic stability decrease the general level of interest rates. This decline in interest rates increase consumption and investment demand and so the credit demand accordingly on the one hand; while leading to a decrease in domestic savings on the other.