Turkey’s Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek has announced the signing of a €895.7 million (TL 25.8 billion) loan agreement with the World Bank, aiming to finance the country’s needs related to renewable energy and water efficiency.
Şimşek said his ministry serves as a bridge to meet the financing needs of other ministries and local governments in these sectors. “We have signed a loan agreement with the World Bank totaling €895.7 million,” he said.
The announcement comes after the May 28 elections, with the new economy administration shifting to orthodox policies and launching initiatives to attract foreign capital to Turkey.
With the new agreement, the total financing Turkey has received from the bank during Şimşek’s short time in office has now reached approximately $3.2 billion.
These agreements were signed as part of the World Bank’s provision of a further $18 billion loan package to Turkey earlier this month following the country’s return to economic orthodoxy.
Speaking to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency at the time, the World Bank’s director for Turkey, Humberto Lopez, revealed that “in addition to our ongoing $17 billion program, new operations worth $18 billion will be prepared and presented to the World Bank Group Board of Directors in the next three years,” bringing the total amount going to Turkey to $35 billion.
This money will, according to Lopez, be used for activities in the public and private sectors in order to support a number of initiatives, including climate mitigation efforts and reconstruction efforts in the country following massive earthquakes that struck southeast Turkey in February and killed more than 50,000 people.