- Meetings with authorities, business community, development partners and civil society
- Focus on post-Covid-19 recovery and supporting investments
- Turkey was top destination for EBRD finance in 2020
EBRD President Odile Renaud-Basso will pay her first official visit to Turkey on 3 and 4 May in a virtual format for meetings with the government, the private sector and civil society.
As travel and in-person meetings continue to be disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, the EBRD President will make use of digital platforms, which have profoundly reshaped ways of working and international relations over the past year.
During her engagement, she will meet with representatives of central and municipal authorities, businesses, local banks, international financial institutions and members of the diplomatic community and civil society.
The meetings will focus on Turkey’s post-Covid-19 recovery and the EBRD investments to support it.
Speaking ahead of her meetings, President Renaud-Basso said: “Turkey, like many other countries where we invest, is challenged by the ongoing pandemic. Bringing the health crisis under control will trigger an economic rebound. The EBRD is prepared to mobilise all tools at its disposal and to use the Bank’s creative capacity to help the Turkish economy in this rebound.”
As part of the EBRD’s commitment to helping build back better and greener economies, President Renaud-Basso will sign, in a video conference with Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, a Memorandum of Understanding that will formalise the process of Turkey’s largest city joining the EBRD Green Cities programme. The Bank and the municipality of Istanbul will work together to implement sustainability measures that will benefit the city’s population of 16 million people.
The EBRD President will also sign an accord with the Turkish Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank to boost innovation in competitive sectors such as machinery, electrical equipment, electronics, mobility, pharmaceuticals and chemicals.
The EBRD is a leading institutional investor in Turkey, with offices in Istanbul and Ankara and 100 staff on the ground. To date the Bank has invested more than €13 billion in the country, with 96 per cent in the private sector. In 2020 the Bank responded to the Covid-19 pandemic by stepping up its financing in the country to €1.7 billion from €1.0 billion in 2019.