The European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union's long-term financing institution, is providing a loan of €225 million to the Republic of Turkey, represented by the Undersecretariat of the Treasury for upgrading, rehabilitating and extending the capacity of priority roads on the main corridors from Istanbul to the South and Eastern parts of Turkey.
This is the first major EIB loan in Turkey in the road transport sector. It is in line with the objective of the Euro-Mediterranean Mandate to support investments in infrastructure, particularly in the transport sector. Given that the improvement of the transport corridors will be supportive of developing the private sector industry, the loan will be under the new Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), established by EIB in October 2002 with special focus on the private sector.
The two corridors carry local and international traffic from the EU through the Balkans and Greece, to the South of Turkey, as well as to the Eastern Black Sea region. The first road scheme concerns some 134 kilometers between Adapazari and Bozyk, on a major north-south corridor.
The second road scheme, which is located between Ankara and Samsun, the major Turkish city on the Black Sea coast, stretches along some 400 kilometers. The project will considerably improve transport safety and efficiency and increase capacity.
Investment in the transport infrastructure has been emphasized as a critical determinant of economic development due to its enabling character, and constitutes a priority area in the Turkish Government‘s program to promote economic prosperity.
In a large country such as Turkey, which has the size of France and the UK combined, where 90 percent of freight transport and 95 percent of passenger transport are done by road, the importance of a sound road network for solid economic progress is paramount, especially as traffic volume is rapidly increasing. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
