1 FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY AN INTRODUCTIONARY STUDY ON ECONOMIC STRUCTURES OF TURKEY AND FLORIDA AND A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ON THE TRADE POTENTIALS BETWEEN THE TWO AN ACTION REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REUBIN O’D ASKEW SCHOOL OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND POLICY BY OZKAN ERKAHRAMAN TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA July 20052 July 01, 2005 To: The Turkish Embassy, Office of the Commercial Counselor at Washington DC and Florida Governor’s Office, Office of Tourism, Trade, and Economic Development (OTTED) in Tallahassee. It’s my pleasure to submit you “An Introductionary Study on Economic Structures of Turkey and Florida and a Comparative Analysis on the Trade Potentials between The Two”. Its purpose is to introduce the economies of Turkey and Florida State to each other and initiate more comprehensive trade relations, at least as a starting point, in the areas in which both have comparative advantages. The objective is to increase trade volume especially in these areas. I am hoping that the compact information covering almost all aspects of the economies of the two and the study on the areas in which both have unutilized trade volume with each other will let both sides know each other better and be aware of missed opportunities to contribute to the economies of the two. While the information here I tried to fill the gap of insufficient information about the markets, and potentials of both. I consider this gap to be one of the reasons of why the two have had a low scale of trade despite their potentials. Simple methods such as building websites for the access and flow of information about the trade facilities of sides, as well as participating in trade missions and joining in trade fairs would help both sides discover and experience concrete opportunities to improve their trade relations. Sincerely, Ozkan Erkahraman, MPA Florida State University3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Trade, out of its conventional function, means more than just simply selling out the extra and buying the scare to satisfy the needs. In today’s global world interconnected markets with every increasing trade volume is also significantly contributing to the economic growth and welfare of the trading parties. International trade emerges to supply the commodities in immediate geography extends farther lands as a result of profits it presents and grows in global scale by the availability of information about the others` markets while urging economic growth of trading parties. This study aims at introducing Turkey and Florida each other’s economies and comparative advantages which are considered as potential areas to involve in trade between the parties which already have naturally evolved, instable trade structure out of any meaningful attempt promoting it. The study, at the end, advises to stabilize, organize and grow the already established low volume trade structure between the parties- mainly based on Florida’s high tech commodities and medical instruments and Turkey’s industrial and textile products- via several ways in the first hand, while referring to comparative advantages of both parties in different commodities, in which both parties has none or less trade volume, for more possible trade in turn.4 Table of contents TRANSMITTAL LETTER 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 PART I: TURKISH ECONOMY 12 Tourism 13 Agriculture 15 Services 18 Information and Communication Technologies 20 Banking Sector 22 Manufacturing Industry 23 Foreign Merchandise Trade 27 Free Trade Zones 30 Foreign Direct Investment 31 PART II: FLORIDA STATE ECONOMY 32 Tourism 33 Agriculture 33 Services 34 Manufacturing 36 Information Technology and Other High-Techs 37 Foreign Merchandise Trade 41 Foreign Direct Investment 46 Free Trade Zones 46 Financial Advantages 47 PART III: THE TRADE RELATIONS AND POSSIBLE FIELDS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN TURKEY AND FLORIDA STATE 49 USEFULL LINKS ON TRADE FROM BOTH SIDES 52 REFERENCES 535 LITERATURE REVIEW In the new era, coined as globalization, the world economics has experienced great transformations in the form of expansion of markets, trade volumes, capital movements and investments enabling the world nations become economically much more interconnected which has never been witnessed like this in global scale before. Although there are contra arguments claiming that this feature of globalization hasn’t worked in favor of some regions (particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union) besides the arising issues on distribution of the global wealth, it can be stated that globalization added more to those countries which have successfully integrated into the global economy (World Bank, 2004). During the past two decades, most of the world’s