Contributing to the fight against the climate change
Since the mid-90s, the rapid growth of Turkey coincided with a strong increase in population and higher consumption of energy and natural sources.
Such developments constitute a serious threat to the environment. The environmental effects of economic activities, especially urban pollution, low level of energy production in construction and industries and excessive dependence on fossil energies are worrisome.
Environment is a treasure of all people in the world: among its projects in Turkey, AFD wishes to contribute to the fight against climate change.
Supporting investments of SMEs
SME’s play a significant role in the Turkish economy: they make up 77% of employment and 27 % of investments and contribute more than 35% of GDP. Despite these facts, they have difficulties in obtaining long term financing. In this context, AFD’s support to Turkish SME’s has been a key objective in Turkey since 2004.
On the other hand, AFD wishes to expand the sharing of knowledge, experiences and ideas mutually concerning the challenges for the development of SMEs and public support policies. For this purpose, the agency organized an international conference in April 2009 for the perception of the world concerning the Turkish SME’s especially in Istanbul (in cooperation with the Turkish daily in economics DÜNYA).
Supporting investments of municipalities and local authorities
Turkey has entered a process of decentralisation of local authorities which has changed dramatically the management of public services and the infrastructure management since 2004. From now on, local authorities in Turkey are responsible for the main part of public investments in basic and sensitive issues such as urban planning, transportation, social, cultural and sportive equipment and environmental protection. AFD finances Turkish municipalities’ projects that meet the double purpose of decreasing the impact of economic growth on the environment and deepening financial autonomy of municipalities.