The fall in the value of the lira has dealt a massive blow to businesses in the TRNC, Chairman of the Turkish Cypriot Chamber of Industry Ali Cirali, has said.
He pointed out that especially in the case of industries that import raw materials, their debts are in foreign currency; however, their accounts are paid in Turkish lira.
Cirali said that payments received were devalued by 17% and their debts to the banks had increased by 17%.
He noted that industrial share of the general economy had fallen from 11% to 9%, whereas it should be around 15%.
The chairman added that there were 35,000 foreign workers in the TRNC and that industry was burdened by having to contribute to the pension fund. He said that with particular regard to workers coming from third world countries, there should be “no providence fund for the foreigners”.
Cirali claimed that even if even if all TRNC citizens were employed, they would still need a foreign work force. “Even if we employed all of our local unemployed persons, we would still need around 20 thousand workers”, he argued.
Halkin Sesi
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