Turkey top provider of humanitarian aid overseas

ANKARA

Turkey is among the countries raising the highest levels of foreign aid, by increasing the amount of funds it provides for nations abroad by 30-fold in the past 10 years, according to official data.

Turkey is carrying out humanitarian and development support activities in over 100 countries across five continents, with its total outgoing foreign aid reaching over $3.4 billion, a written statement disclosed by the Prime Ministry Public Diplomacy Coordination unit has said.

The state was behind most of the assistance sent abroad, as the official development assistance jumped to $2.53 billion in 2012 from $76 million of 2003. The country was also named as the country raising its assistance most on an annual basis for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012, among the OECD countries, by increasing the aid by 38 and 98 percent consecutively.

According to the Global Humanitarian Assistance (GHA) report in 2013, Turkey became the fourth largest government donor of humanitarian assistance across the world in 2012, contributing over $1 billion.