By Burcu Arik
ISTANBUL
The Anadolu Agency does not verify these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.
Turkish dailies on Friday extensively covered Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's announcement of a comprehensive plan to boost Turkey’s economy through broad structural reforms in various sectors, including trade, energy and health.
Addressing a press conference held with nine cabinet ministers in Ankara Palace, Davutoglu said Thursday that Turkey was beginning a new economic period with the reforms, which would boost the country’s economy.
HURRIYET quoted Davutoglu as calling the economic package "not a wish but an action plan." The paper reported that the Turkish government aims to attain its ambitious economic goals by 2018 with the nine-point plan, which will promote research and development as well as utilizing domestic energy sources.
According to the prime minister, the first package of reforms would reduce by 2018 the country's dependence on imports, which at the moment are almost $100 billion more than the country's exports.
The package, mainly aiming to increase the capacity of the real economy that deals with the productions of goods and services, also is meant to increase Turkey's GDP to $1.3 trillion by 2018 from $820 billion in 2013, Davutoglu said.
"Turkey to fly with a major transformation," titled SABAH, adding that the action plan proposes comprehensive transformation by decreasing the economy's dependence on exports, increasing energy production based on domestic resources and supporting efficient use of water resources.
The program would promote efficient use of natural resources by directing existing resources to non-productive areas, and would prevent a loss in economic competitiveness in the mid- and long term.
In other news, Turkish dailies also covered the finding of the bodies of two of the 18 missing miners who were trapped underground on Oct. 28 after a water pipe malfunction caused flooding in a coal mine in the Ermenek district of the central Anatolian province of Karaman, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) south of Ankara, the country's capital.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz announced Thursday that search-and-rescue teams had found the bodies of the two of the 18 trapped workers.
"Bad news from Ermenek" headlined both AKSAM and STAR. AKSAM said the bodies of missing miners were reached after 11 days; STAR reporting that DNA tests will be done to identify the deceased miners.
Operations to reach the remaining 16 workers will continue after levels of methane in the mine have decreased, Yildiz said.
www.aa.com.tr/en
