ANKARA, May 12 (News
Agencies) - Turkish lawmakers on Saturday adopted a crucial bill to privatize telecoms, a key reform essential for the release of much-needed financial assistance for the crisis-hit economy.
The bill was pushed through parliament speedily amid efforts by the government to have it adopted before the International Monetary Fund convened on May 15th for a final word in giving Turkey $10 billion in emergency funds.
Another bill to reform the overcrowded and weak banking sector - which was also sought by the IMF before the May 15th deadline - was adopted late Friday.
Under the Telekom bill, up to 99% of Turkish Telekom, the country's dominant telecommunications operator, will be privatized, but the block share to be sold to a strategic foreign partner will not exceed 45%.
Turkey will keep a so-called golden share to have exclusive say on the regulations regarding national security and defense.
The bill transfers all the regulatory powers in the telecommunications sector from the transport ministry to an independent board in a bid to prevent political favoritism, widespread in Turkey's corruption-ravaged public sector.
It also limits the transport ministry's powers to make any amendments to the Telekom's legal charter.
The bill on the long-delayed sale of the Telekom has caused much tension in the ruling three-party coalition, bringing Turkey's economy Minister Kemal Dervis and the far-right coalition partner, the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), which controls the transport ministry to loggerheads.
Turkish newspapers reported Saturday that Deputy Prime Minister Devlet Bahceli, who heads the MHP, had a fierce row with Dervis in a meeting Thursday over IMF demands to curb the transport ministry's authority over the Telekom administration.
The crisis was overcome in high-level talks on Friday in which Bahceli backed down on his objections and agreed to limit the transport ministry's authority, the reports said.
The privatization of Turkish Telekom is a major element of the country's new economic program, announced last month, to tackle a severe financial crisis that broke out in February.
The turmoil caused the government to float the Turkish lira, which resulted in the currency losing around 40% of its value against the dollar and disrupting an IMF-backed disinflation program in place since December 1999.
