The World Bank approved a EUR 500 million loan to support sustainable development in Turkish cities, under the Sustainable Cities 2 project, which aims to improve the economic, financial, environmental, and social sustainability of the cities by enabling interested municipalities to access financing for their priority investments.
“Turkey’s growing cities are faced with increasing climate and disaster risks requiring a broad range of sustainable and resilient infrastructure to provide services and improve the lives of Turkey’s citizens,” Auguste Kouame, World Bank Country Director for Turkey, said.
The project will be implemented by Ilbank to finance eligible subprojects in areas of urban resilience and sustainability and will have two components.
Under the municipal investments’ component, EUR 498.75 million will be used to finance demand-driven municipal infrastructure investments to improve access to quality, sustainable and resilient public transport, water and wastewater, solid waste management, energy efficiency and renewable energy, urban environments, municipal firefighting services, and social infrastructure and services.
The project management component will benefit EUR 1 million from WB and USD 1.12 million from Ilbank, to finance goods, consulting services related to day-to-day project management, M&E, reporting, and project communications.
The project fits within the Turkey Country Partnership Framework of the World Bank Group for the 2018-2021 period, which includes the strategic objective of improving the sustainability and resilience of cities through investments and technical assistance interventions, which coalesce around a public-private investment coordination approach. The project supports the maximizing finance for development (MFD) approach of the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is the Private Sector Arm of the World Bank Group. The project is also consistent with the Turkish Government’s 10th Development Plan (2014–2018), particularly its ‘Livable Spaces/Sustainable Environment’ pillar, which recognizes the challenges of rapid urbanization and maximizing its benefits for people and economy.
The first Sustainable Cities Project (SCP 1) for USD 132.7 million, including an EU IPA grant of EUR 23.125 million, was approved in December 2016 and the second Sustainable Cities Project (SCP 2) for USD 91.54 million was approved in April 2018. This financing comes at a time when the entire SCP1 and SCP2 funds are fully committed to subprojects.
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