IFC plans 2 bln USD of investments in Turkey

ISTANBUL- Lars Thunell, the executive vice president and CEO of IFC, said that the corporation was preparing to make significant investments in Turkey in days when concerns about Euro zone and global uncertainties increased.

Turkish economy had proved that it was resistant to global economic crisis, Thunell told AA correspondent in an exclusive interview.

Thunell said that Turkey had many advantages as it was geographically close to European and Middle Eastern markets, and it had a strong banking system and developed private sector.

The executive vice president said IFC had confidence in Turkey and would go on investing in the country, and was planning to invest some 2 billion USD in Turkey between 2012 and 2015.

"Turkey was ranked the second in IFC's investment portfolio, and it was the fourth in uncompleted investments portfolio," Thunell said.

Thunell said the IFC would have invested 500 million USD in Turkey by the end of 2012 fiscal year, and so far it had completed 100 million USD portion of it.

"Turkey had fulfilled reforms to strengthen its economy," Thunell said.

Thunell said Turkey should go on strengthening business atmosphere, supporting particularly small and medium scale enterprises and strengthening working conditions, vocational training and talent.

The CEO said IFC had invested 350 million USD to contribute to regional development of 15 Turkish companies between 2008 and 2011.

Thunell said the IFC was mainly funding projects to eliminate gender inequality, increase energy efficiency and develop underdevelop parts of Turkey.

"Turkey should increase its competitive power to sustain its economic growth," Thunell said.

Thunell said Turkey could increase its competitive power by raising its elementary education quality, ensuring employment efficiency, increasing transparency and productivity in public institutions, and improving infrastructure.

"The IFC would make giant investments in Turkey that could enable Istanbul to host olympic games in 2020," Thunell said.

Thunell also said IFC office in Turkey was steering 50 countries in the East and South Europe, Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa.

IFC's Istanbul office has become the location of IFC's first Operations Center outside Washington, serving the Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Southern Europe, Middle East and North Africa regions. This decision is the result of the evolution of the Istanbul office over the past five years from a regional hub into a diverse multi-regional center.

IFC evaluated a number of locations for such an Operations Center and concluded that Istanbul not only has good infrastructure and the advantage of regional proximity to our clients, but also meets a number of other criteria for conducting our business.

The establishment of the Istanbul Operations Center is a landmark event for IFC that will significantly increase the presence of senior management in the region.

The Istanbul office now employs over 200 people.