Meetings with authorities, businesses and civil society to discuss Bank’s contribution to the Turkish economy
Representatives of the EBRD Board of Directors will arrive in Turkey, a top destination for EBRD finance, on Sunday, 22 October 2017, for a five-day visit.
During their stay in Ankara and Istanbul the Directors will discuss the Bank’s contribution to the Turkish economy with a wide range of stakeholders, including representatives of the country’s authorities, large and small enterprises, local lenders, think-tanks, business associations, non-governmental organisations, development partners and diplomats.
The EBRD is a major investor in Turkey. To date, the Bank has invested over €9.5 billion in various sectors of Turkey’s economy, with almost all investments in the private sector.
The Board Directors, representing EBRD shareholders, will discuss policies and reforms with Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Central Bank Governor Murat Çetinkaya and Undersecretary of Treasury and EBRD Governor Osman Celik.
The delegation will be hosted by Taşkın Temiz, Director for Turkey, Romania, Azerbaijan and the Kyrgyz Republic. Board representatives visiting Turkey include:
- Phillip Barresi, Director, Australia, Korea, New Zealand, Egypt
- Anthony Bartzokas, Alternate Director, Greece, Portugal
- Jane Macpherson, Alternate Director, European Investment Bank
- Brian McCauley, Alternate Director, United States of America
- Soomin Park, Alternate Director, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Egypt
- Jaap Rooimans, Alternate Director, Netherlands, Mongolia, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, China
- Aloyzas Vitkauskas, Alternate Director, Lithuania, Denmark, Ireland, Kosovo.
They will also meet AFAD, Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority, which handles refugee matters, to learn first-hand how the Bank can contribute further to building the resilience of communities that are hosting large numbers of refugees from neighbouring Syria. To date, the EBRD has provided finance for new buses and a new hospital in Gaziantep, a major city in south-eastern Turkey where the arrival of refugees is straining municipal services and health care.
In addition, the delegation will discuss with senior management of major Turkish banks how the EBRD can channel its finance through local lenders to reach those who cannot easily access finance, including female entrepreneurs, refugees and firms in more remote regions. The Bank’s financing for small and medium-sized enterprises, through 12 Turkish banks, currently tops €2 billion and has reached 70,000 businesses across the country.
Directors will also hold talks with Turkey’s diversified conglomerates Koç Holding, Sabancı Holding, IC Holding and Rönesans Holding, which have been strong partners for the Bank’s work in enhancing opportunities for women and developing the skills of young people, as well as promoting innovation, higher environmental standards and greater energy efficiency across industries.
The delegation will also pay visits to Bozankaya, an EBRD-financed Turkish company which manufactures trams and electric buses in a landmark partnership with Germany’s Siemens and Ford Otosan’s innovation hub, where the country’s largest carmaker is developing new technology features for its vehicles.
Board Directors will also visit the operations centre of Istanbul’s Eurasia tunnel. Built under the Bosphorus strait, the tunnel links the European and Asian sides of Turkey’s largest city and was opened last December. It was the country’s first major public-private partnership in the road sector, with predominantly foreign financing, and has since opened the way for the financing of the country’s wide-ranging pipeline of infrastructure projects under public-private models, including the EBRD-backed, large-scale hospital-building programme.
The delegation will be accompanied by the EBRD’s outgoing Managing Director for Turkey Jean-Patrick Marquet and his successor Arvid Tuerkner, who will take over the Istanbul-based post on 1 November 2017.
