This is my first article of 2012. Happy New Year to All!

For this first article I chose to write about Turkey because AALEP has been approached to organize a special Lobbying Workshop in Istanbul.

The priorities of the Association have been outlined in an Action Plan for 2012. The main features of the Action Plan can be found in the Members' Only section. 

The following are AALEP's predictions for 2012.

By 2018 China will overtake the United States in terms of gross domestic product at purchasing power parity. A new economic order will come to pass in 2020 led by China and followed by the U.S., India, Japan, Russia, Germany, Brazil, UK, France, Mexico, South Korea, Indonesia, Italy, Canada and Spain.

Even though the Brussels Summit on 9 December brought an agreement on binding rules over tax and spending, and sanctions against countries that overspend, the recession will still be a reality to tackle for EU business leaders in 2012. As governments, corporations, financial institutions and the European Union work to transform themselves there is a real risk of severe disruptions to normal patterns of economic activity.

With demand from the developed world tepid at best, trade between emerging markets themselves will accelerate with an emphasis on the new and leisured classes in such markets as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia,  Mexico, Russia, Turkey.

By and large, emerging market consumers, companies and governments are starting with low levels of debt, there is 'no debt overhang' and no need for the pain of austerity and deleveraging the developed world is suffering. In other words, most emerging market economies still have to a way to run.

People in Russia want the kind of things that people in the U.S. and Western Europe take for granted. They just want fair elections. They want a kind of real, plural media that listens to opposition voices. They want a more plural political landscape, because at the moment, basically Russia is formally a democracy but in reality it is nothing of the kind. It has a pretend opposition rather than a real opposition. And it has none of the safeguards that are taken for granted in the West. The court system is corrupted and susceptible to political influence.

Libya is a nation in the process of a major transition. As it recovers from the devastation of the past year it will have a real need for foreign investors to contribute to both its reconstruction effort as well as major industries, such as its oil and gas sector. Libya is set to become a new global player in the world of business and commerce. The new Libyan Government aims to incorporate its recently released assets into a national recovery plan, diversifying the country's economy in a way that will allow it to prosper in a variety of forms.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce which is the world's largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations announced on 20 December 2011 its full support to the establishment of a US-Libyan Chamber of Commerce.

On 22 December 2011, AALEP received the visit in Brussels of Dr. Ramon Bruesseler, Executive Director of the European Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Lao PDR. Both organizations are linked through a Protocol of Cooperation. The visit provided an opportunity to exchange views and to discuss possible action programmes to be implemented in 2012 to further public participation in the Lao decision-making process.