Turkey ‘needs $200-billion transport investment’

Turkey’s trade prospects require the country to boost its efforts and accomplish $200-billion worth of investments, the transport minister has said

According to Yıldırım, Turkey’s ambitious trade and growth targets make the $200 million-worth infrastructure investments a must, and require a doubling of the investments made up to today.

Transport and infrastructure projects make up the core of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s economic development plans and have been seen as the key for reinforcing the country’s position as a hub of regional trade.

The government will undertake around $120 billion of these investments at the issue, while the remaining $80 billion will be carried out through the Build-Operate-Transfer model or private-public partnerships, Yıldırım said.

Between 2003 and 2012, the total cost of projects implemented through the cooperation of public and private actors amounted to $68 million, according to the World Bank’s Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) website.

When Turkey’s largest PPP project up to today is added, the $29 billion-worth third Istanbul airport project, which was tendered this year, the number rises considerably.

In his remarks, over the weekend, Yıldırım introduced an even more ambitious plan.

He stressed that the government was mulling the generation of solar power in space and transporting this power to earth through radio waves by 2035. He said they were first planning to launch a locally manufactured satellite into orbit in 2018.

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