Reports

Turkey underwent a very ambitious reform programme  in 2003, the so-called 'Health Transformation Programme'. Access to healthcare in Turkey has greatly increased with the attainment of Universal Health Coverage, as also demonstrated by improvement in health outcomes, most notably around maternal and child health and infectious diseases. However, despite these significant achievements, Turkey has a significant way to travel to deliver high-quality health services to its population. Governance of the health system is highly centralised and typified by directive control from the Ministry of Health, and information collected in different part of the system is not always fully exploited. The OECD Review of Health Care Quality in Turkey recommends a number of changes to address these shortcomings. The key recommendations are that: i) Turkey needs to develop robust systems to standardise and monitor the quality of care, encourage continuous professional development and incorporate patient views; ii) some loosening of the governance structure would be welcome, to allow regions greater flexibility to assess and respond to local health needs and to continue to provide health workers with incentives for improve quality; iii) data on health sector activity and outcomes need to be made more available and more usable for individual patients and clinicians, while greater effort is needed to increase the robustness of Turkey’s information systems at national level and harmonise performance measures to OECD and other international comparators.

Governments are major issuers of debt instruments in the global financial market. This volume provides quantitative information on central government debt instruments for the 34 OECD member countries to meet the analytical requirements of users such as policy makers, debt management experts and market analysts.  Statistics are presented according to a comprehensive standard framework to allow cross-country comparison.  Country methodological notes provide information on debt issuance in each country as well as on the institutional and regulatory framework governing debt management policy and selling techniques.

Turkey is an important producer and exporter of agricultural commodities on world markets and is estimated to be the world’s 7th-largest agricultural producer. Although the economic importance of agricultural sector relative to the industrial and service sectors has been declining, agriculture still remains a key part of Turkey’s society, employing about one quarter of the workforce and generating most of income and employment in rural areas. Agricultural policies in Turkey have evolved significantly over time and the new Agricultural Law agreed in 2006 aims to align Turkey’s agricultural policies with those of the European Union. The main purpose of the study is to evaluate recent policy developments in the context of a broader review of policy developments since the implementation of the Agricultural Reform Implementation Project (ARIP) in 2001. This study also discusses several emerging issues and challenges for Turkish agricultural policies, and offers key policy recommendations.

Trends in bank profitability and factors affecting it are major indicators of changes in the state of health of national banking systems. This publication provides nationally aggregated financial statements of banks data for OECD member countries. The coverage of banks is not the same in each country, though the objective is to include all institutions that conduct ordinary banking business, namely institutions which primarily take deposits from the public at large and provide finance for a wide range of purposes. Some information on the number of reporting banks, their branches and staff is also included, as well as structural information regarding the whole financial sector. Moreover, ratios, based on various items of the financial statements of banks in percentage of some specific aggregates, are supplied to facilitate the analysis of trends in bank profitability of OECD countries. Times series available vary according to country, but generally the last five years of available data are shown.

This OECD publication provides statistics on international trade in services by partner country for 28 OECD countries plus the European Union (EU27), the Euro area, and Hong Kong, China as well as definitions and methodological notes. The data concern trade between residents and non-residents of countries and are reported within the framework of the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services. This book includes summary tables of trade patterns listing the main trading partners for each country and by broad service category. Series are shown in US dollars and cover the period 2004-2008.

The International Energy Agency's periodic review of Turkey's energy policies and programmes.  This 2009 edition finds that Turkey will likely see the fastest medium to long-term growth in energy demand among the IEA member countries. It has a young and urbanising population and energy use is still comparatively low. Therefore, ensuring sufficient energy supply to a growing economy remains the government’s main energy policy concern. Turkey has also progressed significantly in all other areas of energy policy over the past few years. Large investments in energy infrastructure, especially in electricity and natural gas, are needed to avoid bottlenecks in supply and to sustain rapid economic growth. To attract that investment, the country needs to continue reforming its energy market. Power sector reform is well under way, but in the natural gas sector reform has been slower and needs to be accelerated. Improving energy efficiency is essential for responding to Turkey’s energy policy challenges, and considerable potential remains in all sectors. In a country where private cars are rapidly becoming more common and where significant new construction is foreseen, transport and buildings merit particular long-term attention from the decision makers. Energy-related CO2 emissions have more than doubled since 1990 and are likely to continue to increase rapidly over the medium and long term, in parallel with energy demand. The IEA urges Turkey to intensify efforts to further develop its approach concerning its post-2012 regime to combat climate change, and to consider setting a quantitative overall target for limiting emissions.  This review analyses the broad range of energy challenges facing Turkey and provides critiques and recommendations for further policy improvements.