Let's lend an ear to ASİAD's Başaran
Güncelleme Tarihi:
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 30, 2008 00:00
At times of economic crisis, it is of course difficult to think strategically. Governments need to produce fast solutions, companies seek ways to quickly pare costs. But it also worth keeping in mind that these are the moments in which many institutions will be created or recreated for the coming century or so.
An American recession in the 19th century that coincided with massive railroad building is generally credited with giving us the "rating agency" mechanism that is much-discussed as a culprit in this crisis. The Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, is a product of the Versaille war reparations discussions that followed World War I. The Bretton Woods institutions, that is the IMF and World Bank, similarly followed calamity. The origins of commercial stock exchanges are variously traced to either 14th century Amsterdam or Antwerp.
But another version of history places the world’s first bourse in today’s township of Çavdarhisar within the Turkish city of Kütahya, then known as Aizanoi. That exchange, to set prices for horses and slaves, was created by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in a second century inflation fighting exercise.
We share this background by way of explaining our intrigue with a story in yesterday’s Daily News. This was a proposal by Ömer Faruk Başaran, chairman of the Eurasia Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association, or ASİAD. Başaran’s idea is a new stock exchange that would exclusively serve small and medium-sized enterprises, or SME’s. Issuance of shares in Turkey’s so-called "tiger" companies could be a means to raise credit and financing when traditional avenues of banking are unavailable.
OK, this is hardly easy. Such firms lack the transparency and accounting standards needed to enable such arrangements. But such a bourse might well be the means to induce and embrace such rules, a virtue in its own right.
Recently, we reported on the government’s initiative to create non-interest or "Islamic" bonds to cater to niche investors interested in such tools. Another good idea. In the past, we have also supported the idea of a coalition of emerging market economies coming together to create an appropriate rating mechanism free of the discredited "Big 3" New York-based agencies which have gotten the world into so much trouble.
As to Başaran’s idea, the "Alternative Investments Market" of the London Stock Exchange might be a model. This alternative bourse specifically caters to smaller companies.
Başaran offered other ideas, including a pool of state assets whose privatization would specifically aid clean-up of foreign and domestic debt. "We will keep suggesting solutions," he said.
We certainly hope so. As the world refashions its financial architecture, Turkish architects should contribute.
But another version of history places the world’s first bourse in today’s township of Çavdarhisar within the Turkish city of Kütahya, then known as Aizanoi. That exchange, to set prices for horses and slaves, was created by the Roman Emperor Diocletian in a second century inflation fighting exercise.
We share this background by way of explaining our intrigue with a story in yesterday’s Daily News. This was a proposal by Ömer Faruk Başaran, chairman of the Eurasia Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association, or ASİAD. Başaran’s idea is a new stock exchange that would exclusively serve small and medium-sized enterprises, or SME’s. Issuance of shares in Turkey’s so-called "tiger" companies could be a means to raise credit and financing when traditional avenues of banking are unavailable.
OK, this is hardly easy. Such firms lack the transparency and accounting standards needed to enable such arrangements. But such a bourse might well be the means to induce and embrace such rules, a virtue in its own right.
Recently, we reported on the government’s initiative to create non-interest or "Islamic" bonds to cater to niche investors interested in such tools. Another good idea. In the past, we have also supported the idea of a coalition of emerging market economies coming together to create an appropriate rating mechanism free of the discredited "Big 3" New York-based agencies which have gotten the world into so much trouble.
As to Başaran’s idea, the "Alternative Investments Market" of the London Stock Exchange might be a model. This alternative bourse specifically caters to smaller companies.
Başaran offered other ideas, including a pool of state assets whose privatization would specifically aid clean-up of foreign and domestic debt. "We will keep suggesting solutions," he said.
We certainly hope so. As the world refashions its financial architecture, Turkish architects should contribute.