Foundation to be laid for Akkuyu nuclear power plant next week: PM

ANKARA

The foundation will be laid for the Akkuyu nuclear power plant next week, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said.

Speaking in a parliamentary group meeting on March 27, Yıldırım said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin would attend the groundbreaking ceremony.

Turkey’s first nuclear power plant will be built by Russia’s Rosatom in the Akkuyu district of the southern province of Mersin for a $20 billion price tag.

Yıldırım was also optimistic about Turkey’s estimated growth rate for 2017.

In the same speech, he said Turkey grew between 7 and 7.5 percent last year.

The official growth data for the fourth quarter of 2017 will be announced by the Turkish Statistic Institute (TÜİK) on March 29. As the data for all four quarters of 2017 will be announced, the 2017 data will be calculated partly. TÜİK will release the final data for 2017 in September.

“Turkey’s 2017 growth rate will be between 7-7.5 percent. This is a record,” said Yıldırım.

Turkey aims for an annual economic growth of 5.5 percent until 2020 in its medium-term economic program.

“Despite all the negative campaigns against Turkey,” Yıldırım also said tourism bookings for this year were on the rise compared to previous years.

“According to the estimations, we will be hosting 38 million guests in Turkey this year,” he said.

Turkey hosted over 32 million tourists in 2017, bringing in $26.5 billion in revenue.