EBRD provides 500 mln euros for quake-hit regions

ISTANBUL

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is providing a 500-million-euro financing to support the regions affected by last year’s devastating earthquakes.

The agreement regarding the new financing was signed between the Treasury and Finance Ministry and the development bank.

Shortly after the quakes, the EBRD announced a 1.5 billion-euro investment package that included credit lines, infrastructure investments and support for the private sector and small and medium-sized enterprises.

“We thank the EBRD for the funding it will provide. Healing the wounds from the earthquakes is our priority,” Finance Ministry Mehmet Şimşek wrote on X, formerly Twitter, adding that the government has mobilized its resources in the budget for this purpose.

Meanwhile, EBRD separately announced that it is providing an additional 50-million-euro loan to Fraport TAV Antalya (FTA) to finance the completion of Antalya Airport.

The upgrades to the airport will contribute to greater operational efficiencies and help optimize the capacity of the existing infrastructure, the bank said in a statement.

The loan follows a previous EBRD loan of 140 million euros, which was provided in March 2023, and is part of a 2.3-billion-euro financing package that includes funds from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB).

The EBRD is one of the key investors in Türkiye, with almost 19.5 billion euros invested in 440 projects and trade facilitation lines since 2009, the majority of them in the private sector.