Energy giant Shell signs Turkish oil and gas deal

Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell signed a deal Wednesday with the Turkish state-run petroleum company, TPAO, to explore oil and gas.

The deal will allow the two companies to search for oil and natural gas offshore in the Mediterranean as well as onshore in Turkey's southeast region, the paper said on its website.

Turkey has long-running disputes with Greek Cyprus over delineating the Mediterranean and Aegean seas for the exploration of oil and gas resources.

Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said last Wednesday in Ankara that the deal, if sealed with Shell, would pave the way for the exploration of oil and natural gas on the Turkish lands and seas. 

 “TPAO [Turkish Petroleum Corporation] and Shell will undersign a joint operation agreement on Nov. 23 that covers exploration in the maritime areas of [the southern province of] Antalya,” Minister Taner Yıldız told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.

“This will be an important opening in the Mediterranean. We are moving our strategic weight from the BlackSea to the Mediterranean Sea,” Yıldız said during a phone interview.

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Hungary could not resist the impact of the economic and financial crises

The Hungarian government requested financial assistance from the EU Commission and the IMF that cancel the agreement with the IMF last year.

Hungary could not be reached the desired level of growth and financial stability and the government is obliged to ask for help from the IMF again.

The statement made by the Commission to "Today the Hungarian authorities have requested for a possible EU financial assistance. Moreover, Hungary have requested similar financial assistace from the IMF."

According to the Commission, financial assistance on Hungary will be decided in consultation with members of the EU and the IMF.

Among the EU's new members, Hungary has the worst economic indicators. 

Hungary's public debt has reached 82 percent of economic size. In Hungary, the EU Commission expects the growth rate of 0.5 percent next year, the budget deficit to 2.8 per cent and an 11 percent unemployment rate for Hungary.

İsa Burak Gonca 

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Is Portugal Next?

Portugal's economy shrank 0.4 percent in the third quarter from the previous quarter.

Also, the economy shrank by 0.1 percent year-on-quarter in the second quarter.

According to the Portuguese National Statistics Institute (INE), the country's gross domestic product (GDP) shrank by 0.4 percent in the third quarter-quarter basis.

The country’s economy declined by 1.7 percent in the same period of last year in the third quarter. Portugal's GDP declined by 1 percent in the second quarter on an annual basis.

“Portugal, a country of nearly 11 million, is Western Europe’s poorest, with growth that has trailed its neighbors over the past decade, something economists blame on an uncompetitive and rigid labor market. The unemployment rate has risen above 12% this year” (Financialsense, 2011).  

Portugal became the third country in the euro zone affected by the debt crisis. After Greece and Ireland, Portugal received 78 billion Euros in foreign aid from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union. In return for this help, Portugal had promised to decrease budget deficit as the level of 3 percent in 2013 which it reached year 9.1 percent of the gross domestic product in last year. 

It is not far that the Euro zone debt contagion spread to all Europe. So, the possible domino effect is inevitable. 

As a result, Portugal does not bode well for the economic indicators. Portugal may be the next after Greece. In Italy, Ireland, Spain and Belgium also things did not go well. For the European Union, this situation can be very difficult to carry. Of course, other countries will be affected by the situation. In particular, Europe's two biggest neighbors, Russia and Turkey that seems like unaffected by the financial crisis, but they will be affected by this situation in long-and short-term.

İsa Burak GONCA

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Why Berlusconi stepped down?

After the adoption of amendments of the financial stability law in Italy by the House of Representatives, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi met with President Giorgio Napolitano and submitted his resignation. Republican Senate previously approved changes to the financial stability law in Italy, was also accepted by the House of Representatives. President Napolitano accepted the resignation and expected to press the button for early elections.

Silvio Berlusconi was born on 29 September 1936. He is a conservative Italian politician and businessman who was the longest-serving post war Prime Minister of Italy, and third longest-serving since the creation of Italy, after Benito Mussolini and Giovanni Giolitti. He held this position on three separate occasions: from 1994 to 1995, from 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He is also known by the nickname Il Cavaliere (literally, The Knight), due to the knighthood of the Order of Merit for Labour he received in 1977. He is also one of the richest men in the world.

In addition to this, after his immunity from prosecution was lifted by the Constitutional Court in October 2009, he declared:

"I am without doubt the person who's been the most persecuted in the entire history of the world and the history of man." 

"In my opinion, and not only mine, I am the best prime minister we can find today."

Moreover, Berlusconi’s relationship with media can be defined as “media control and conflict of interest”. Berlusconi's extensive control over the media has been widely criticized by Italian people. However, he has been wracked by sexual scandals such as wiretaps and accusations of corruption through the exploitation of prostitution in 2007, Prostitution scandal and divorce in 2009, Ruby Rubacuori in 2010. I do not want to talk too much about this subject, but all of these have created the infrastructure of the resignation of Berlusconi.

Despite he declared himself as the best politician in Europe, supporters of Berlusconi declined and lost the majority in parliament.

“It comes after the lower house of Italy's parliament has passed a package of austerity measures demanded by the EU and designed to restore markets' confidence in the country's economy. The austerity package includes a rise in VAT and the pension age, rising fuel prices and the sale of state assets. Members of the lower house voted 380-26 with two abstentions, after the Senate approved the measures easily on Friday. President Napolitano later signed the bill” (BBC, 2011).

The austerity package will create some social problems in long-term in Italy.. Maybe Italians will not miss Berlusconi, but Russian leader Vladimir Putin will miss him. Will South Stream pipeline to be completed on time without Berlusconi? According to some, Berlusconi may be a bad leader. They can be sent Berlusconi away from active politics. But they cannot finish the hegemony of Berlusconi in Italy. I hope Italy recover from the financial crisis without Berlusconi.


İsa Burak GONCA

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The Top 20 Most Valuable Countries of the World

 

Brand Finance Brand assessment body, identified Turkey as a brand value of $ 373 billion. 

According to this survey, Republic of Turkey is the most valuable 19th in the world and 10th most valuable country in Europe.

Brand Finance made a statement regarding the results of research, Turkey's brand value increased by 19.8 percent from a year earlier rose to $ 373 billion, was emphasized. This value comes between the first time in Turkey's most valuable brand in 20 countries, including Austria and Denmark, where also left behind many developed countries. In addition, Turkey has reached this value in Europe's most valuable brand in 10 countries succeeded to be among. The top 3 in the list when the United States, Germany and China is located.

Brand Finance Forum, held in various cities for many years for the first time in Turkey on November 24, "My brand's value and my business - The opportunities for building valuable brands in Turkey". Brand Finance is committed to the development of theoretical and practical issues surrounding brands. As part of this process, we organise a series of events and forums around the world where leading practitioners in the area of brand strategy, brand building and brand valuation come together to share their experiences and to better understand the process by which valuable brands are created.

In recent months, "Turkey's Most Valuable Brands" also published by Muhterem İlgüner who is Brand Finance Director of Turkey, so far the country brand, branding abroad, suggesting that creates difficulty in front of the business world, this table should be pointed out that assessment. Countries in determining brand value, economic policies, GDP, unemployment rate, the tourism income, the perception of country risk, competitiveness, health services, total exports, such as the banking system indicators were not ignored.

According to the survey, The Top 20 Most Valuable Countries of the World

1) U.S.A. - 12.576 billion dollars
2) Germany - 3.146 billion dollars
3) China - 3.001 billion dollars
4) Japan - 1.940 billion dollars
5) U.K. - 1.849 billion dollars

6) France -  1.673 billion dollars
7) Italy - 1.515 billion dollars
8) Canada - 1.309 billion dollars
9) India - 1.266 billion dollars
10) Brazil - 959 billion dollars
11) Netherlands - 829 billion dollars
12) Russia - 752 billion dollars
13) Spain - 729 billion dollars
14) Australia - 702 billion dollars
15) Mexico - 672 billion dollars
16) South Korea - 605 billion dollars
17) Switzerland - 551 billion dollars
18) Sweden - 471 billion dollars
19) Turkey - 373 billion dollars
20) Belgium - 369 billion dollars

For more information: http://www.brandfinance.com/

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