this strong growth performance was private sector driven and supported by continuous productivity gains. along with the high economic growth, openness of the turkish economy has also increased substantially. exports increased by more than two - folds since 2001 and reached to usd 107 billion in 2007. the banking sector has strengthened significantly and became resilient to internal and external shocks. finally, budget deficit and debt stock of the public are no longer sources of vulnerability. even before recent upward revisions in gdp figures, turkey easily met the maastricht criteria for the budget deficit and debt stock. turkey has demonstrated significant improvement in the world bank ’ s governance index since 2000. thanks to better governance practices, competitiveness of turkish economy has advanced drastically in recent years as well. in the last two years, turkey moved up a total of 18 steps in the global competitiveness index prepared by the world economic forum. turkey also moved up 34 steps compared to the previous year in the ease of doing business index of the world bank. distinguished guests, i tried to highlight some of the important developments in turkey regarding economic governance in recent years and the resulting improvement in the economic structure. all these led to improvement in the confidence, which was instrumental in further confidence building and credibility for the economic management. these are all key ingredients of good governance. these achievements, however, are not enough. we still have much to do in terms of reaching price stability and securing sustainable high growth rates. there is still much to be done to improve economic governance and to reach a level compatible with the eu - 15 average. as we are going through difficult times both internally and externally, we should not lose the momentum gained in institutional capacity building. it is even more imperative at this juncture to show and utilize the dexterity that we gained from our past experiences. we have to list the things on the reform agenda and share it with the public at large and without sacrificing the long - term benefits for short - term gains. to ensure that the reform agenda is fulfilled in a timely manner, we need to prepare and announce a timetable, thus setting up performance criteria and adhere strictly to its implementation. in case any delay occurs in the execution of the pre - announced timetable, necessary mechanisms should be in place to ensure that policy makers face the public and explain why it was not achieved. by doing so, we will be able to preserve the gains we have brought about and maintain the medium and long - term growth capacity of our economy. the key word that i

these legal and economic criteria in a sustainable manner, it joins the euro area. however, the adoption of the euro is not the end of the story. it is merely the end of the beginning. indeed, joining the euro is not in itself a recipe for success. countries need to pursue the right policies in order to thrive in the euro area. joining the emu removes the national instrument of nominal exchange rate adjustment. this implies increased flexibility of national economies and increased responsibilities for the co - ordination of the national economic policies of the member states, because they have to compensate for the elimination of this adjustment channel. against this backdrop, the institutional framework in the ec treaty for the emu does not only set a new institutional framework for monetary policy but also for the economic policies of the member states : • the main tool for co - ordinating the policies are the so called “ broad economic policy guidelines ”. they set the overall frame for the economic policies of the member states. • building on this co - ordination framework the eu leaders agreed on a wide - ranging program of structural reforms – the so - called lisbon strategy in 2000. the strategy ’ s aim is to gearing national policies towards macro - economic stability and micro - economic flexibility. • in addition to the co - ordination of economic policies the ec treaty has put in place a framework for stability - oriented budgetary policies. the main element of this framework is the stability and growth pact, which requires member states to pursue sound fiscal policies. the economic policy guidelines and the budgetary rules are important so as to facilitate the adjustment to economic shocks in the absence of a national monetary and exchange rate policy. v the eu ’ s position on unilateral euroisation the eu ’ s roadmap for euro adoption is solid and indispensable. accordingly, it is not surprising that the eu has taken a negative position towards unilateral euroisation by a candidate country or a member state with a derogation. in november 2000, the ecofin council – bringing together the economics and finance ministers of the eu member states – formally adopted the position that unilateral euroisation is not compatible with the treaty and cannot be a way to bypass the convergence process foreseen by the treaty for the adoption of the euro. the ecb fully subscribes to this position of the eu council. allowing a member state or a future member state to take a “ short - cut ” to the euro, rather than following the