The Republic of Turkey is located at a point where three continents making up the old world, Africa, Asia, and Europe are closest to each other. This geographical location has granted Turkey prominent access to participate in the global economy because of their great land connections and the seas surrounding the country on three sides. Comparatively, Turkey is slightly larger than the size of Texas, but unlike Texas, Turkey has a population of 65.6million people. Turkey's government is a republican parliamentary democracy consisting of a three-branch system: executive, legislative, and judicial branch. Turkey has a dynamic economy that is a complex mix of modern industry and commerce along with traditional village agriculture and crafts. In this essay, I am going to analyze the Turkish people, major imports and exports, inflation in relation to FDI, their educational system, and the strengths and weaknesses of information technology in Turkey.
To begin with, Turkey has a population of 65,599,206 (July 99 est.) with a population growth rate of 1.57%. The majority of Turkish people are Muslims. There are two ethnic groups: Turkish 80%, Kurdish 20%. As of April 1998, there were approximately 22.7 million people in the labor force. With their labor force broken down by occupation: agriculture 42.5%, services 34.5%, and industry 23%. There major industries include textiles, food processing, autos, mining (coal, chromite, copper, boron), steel, petroleum, construction, lumber, and paper. .
The most important industry for Turkey - the largest exporter- is textiles and clothing. With total exports at $31 billion and total imports at $47 billion, Turkey has a negative net exports in the calculation of GDP just like the United States. Their Gross Domestic Product is $425.4 billion with a real growth rate of 2.8%. The GDP per capital is only $6,600. Turkey's major imports include machinery and equipment, fuels, minerals, and foodstuffs.