UK, Turkey agree clean transport deal worth $2.3 billion

ISTANBUL

The United Kingdom said on March 17 that it had agreed its biggest-ever civil infrastructure export finance deal to underwrite a high-speed rail line between the Turkish capital Ankara and the Aegean province of İzmir, the third largest city in Turkey.

“U.K. government’s biggest ever sustainable, civil infrastructure deal will help finance a new high speed electric railway line in Turkey to decarbonize travel, with major contracts awarded to British and Turkish businesses,” read a statement from U.K. Export Finance (UKEF).

UKEF will guarantee a 2.1 billion euro ($2.3 billion) loan to fund 503 kilometers of high-speed electric railway.
Several contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds were expected to be awarded for British-made railway lines, signalling and electrification systems, it said.

Engineering and construction giant ERG International Group is using its close ties with the U.K. supply chain to support the project.
“Turkey is a vital trading partner for the UK. Our shared global outlook on free trade and the environment is the driving force behind economic growth in our two nations,” said British International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan.
Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered Bank are leading the financing of the project.

Turkish Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati said in a statement: “We have given utmost importance to the environmental and social procedures during this project and as the Treasury and Finance Ministry, we are closely following the improvements of such issues. We also desire to be among the active and important players of the rapidly growing green finance market.”

Speaking the U.K.-Turkey Green Finance Conference in London yesterday, Nebati noted that Turkey has pledged to have a carbon-neutral economy as of 2053.
“In the period between 2022 and 2021, the share of renewable energy in the total installed power capacity increased from 38.6 percent to 53.9 percent. Thus, Turkey climbed up to the rank of 13th in the world and 6th in Europe in terms of installed renewable energy power,” he said.