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Ltd., Turkish-Cypriots eventually got some industry up and running after only about
two years of neglect, the priority sector having been agriculture. Much of this
industry was geared around the utilisation of existing infrastructure, manufacturing
petrochemical products: plastic goods, detergents, and steel pipes. Between 1976
and 1980, Turkey was the key market for manufactured goods, which would
purchase anything and everything that could be produced in Cyprus at the time, as
much because of its own economie problems, as with the need to make its recent
conquest pay. Most manufactured goods were made specifically for export to
Turkey, inputs for which (Polypropylene and PVC granules etc.) were imported
from third countries, in this case mostly West Germany. In the petrochemical
market: plastic products, cables, polythene and polypropylene bags, paint,
detergents, where northern Cyprus acted only as a finisher, two years of production
were pre-booked by Turkish importers in the late '70s. Turkey's foreign exchange
problems at the time were the root cause of these industriai initiatives. Using
Turkish Lira, northern Cyprus thus acted as an extension of Turkey's import
substitution policies, admittedly a small one, but one that was also beyond the
scrutiny of international lenders (who may have encouraged other adjustment
criteria).
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