Scherzando Karasu Freelance Writer

DISTRIBUTED BY THE DAILY TELEGRAPH -17 MAY 2011 INDEPENDENT FEATURE for IMAGE DIPLOMACY  In under a century Turkey has endured some pretty seismic changes, not least the defeat of the Ottoman Empire. Independence came in 1923 - led by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, credited as being the founder of the modern Turkish state – and it gave birth to a new mindset that most Turks hold very dear in both their business and personal lives. Undergoing this transformation has not been easy but the nation has invested itself in its goals, achieving many in the last decade. They aim to reach other targets set, like their commitment to make Turkey one of the top 10 economies in the world by 2023; the milestone celebrating the centenary of the founding of the Republic. There can be no doubt that the recent economic downtown ushered in a new world order in terms of fiscal regime, discipline and business practice. In light of the strife, Turkey’s performance has been little short of astonish...

Prepared by Scherzando Karasu Lebanon’s halcyon post-colonial days of the 1950’s and 60’s witnessed the emergence of the country’s financial services sector as the entrepôt to the Middle East. At a time when their banking secrecy legislation enabled Lebanon to position it’s self as a safe regional financial hub, attracting money driven from the wider Arab world. Lebanon served as a magnet to depositors weary of the political upheaval and the socialist and pan-Arab political experiments that were sweeping across the region. After Lebanon’s civil war between 1975 and 1990 the sector once again became the catalyst for the country’s development and indeed to an extent that of the broader region. With the stability of the Lebanese banking sector reflecting, to a significant extent, its remarkable success in attracting a constantly large stream of foreign funding. Primarily from the Lebanese diaspora, The Gulf and wider Middle Eastern depositors.   In recent years the banking sec...