Turkey's minister of finance, Mehmet Şimşek, tells Courtney Fingar how he intends to overhaul the country's tax system, why its political system is in a better shape than many perceive, and what the benefits of EU membership would be.

In a series of landmark developments, the Turkish government has begun the process of privatising its energy industry. So far, however, foreign interest in the tenders has been sorely lacking, so now the government is looking at further measures to galvanise the market.

The Black Sea region sits along vital trade routes, connecting Asia and Europe, but its disjointed transport connections and dearth of intraregional trade has held it back. Can a raft of port modernisation projects finally bring a joined-up approach?

Burdened with a huge current account deficit and rising tensions in the Kurdish south-east of the country, Turkey has its fair share of challenges. But the country's finance minister believes that with the help of foreign investment it can reduce the size of the deficit and provide better prospects in the struggling districts.

Indonesia has achieved significant economic growth in the past three years and now, with the help of a new development plan, its government has set the ambitious target of transforming the country into a major economic power by 2025. Can Indonesia compete on the same stage as Asia's behemoth economies such as India and China, or will the basic issues of infrastructure and inflation continue to hold it back?

As the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – realise the decade-old prediction that they would become economic superpowers, attention now turns to the global economies that will follow them.