New finance center tender opens today

ISTANBUL

A group of people look at the mock-up of Istanbul’s planned finance center. AA Photo

An initial first tender for Istanbul’s International Finance Center Special Project and Recreation Area will be held Aug. 31, according to an official written statement issued Aug. 30.

The tender will include both the infrastructure and substructure of the financial center, the construction of educational facilities, roads and landscaping, religious facilities to accommodate thousands of people, a management block, health center, firehouse, police stations and a connecting bridge, the statement said. The project, which is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, will give priority to the development of the infrastructure and roads.

The construction of social facilities was removed from the preliminary tender, and will be made after the project has taken off. The tender will take place at the Emlak Konut Real Estate Investment Trust headquarters in Istanbul today.

The government plans to build a large finance center on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, moving some related state institutions and financial institutes from the capital city of Ankara and attracting private finance companies, most of which are currently headquartered on the European site of Istanbul, to this new base.

Attracting foreign finance

The overall goal is to attract a large number of international firms to Istanbul, making the city a regional finance hub.

İbrahim Turhan, the head of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (İMKB), said at an Istanbul meeting on Aug. 29 that a new capital markets law would be revolutionary. “We have a vision of an Istanbul Finance Center, so we need this change. It is important to rewrite the rules of the game,” he said.