ANKARA, 19 November 2018 - Turkey takes a step forward today to make its cities more sustainable, inclusive and well-planned, with a focus on adopting integrated and long-term approaches to city planning and development.
High level officials from the World Bank, the European Union, the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization and Iller Bank with local representatives from metropolitan municipalities convened at the launch event of the Sustainable Cities Program in Turkey.
The Sustainable Cities Program at large aims to improve the economic, financial, environmental, and social sustainability of Turkish cities. The project will assist cities in laying the groundwork for sustainable infrastructure through comprehensive and integrated municipal plans, linking these to a robust Capital Investment Plan. It will also enable interested municipalities to access financing for their investments to deliver improved services to their citizens.
During the launch, Sameh Wahba, Director of Social, Rural, Urban and Resilience Global Practice at World Bank, highlighted that supporting Sustainable Cities was central to World Bank’s mission to end extreme poverty and boost shared prosperity and reemphasized the commitment to work with Turkey to assist in overcoming the challenges of building sustainable and resilient cities and promoting territorial development.
Johannes Zutt, World Bank Country Director for Turkey added: “The partnership and instrument that has been developed under the Sustainable Cities program provides a unique platform for integrated and multisectoral solutions to the various challenges faced by Turkey’s cities and to increasing the financial capacity of municipalities for improving lives of people of Turkey.”
Following the opening remarks, Murat Kurum, Minister of Environment and Urbanization and the World Bank team held a bilateral meeting, focusing on the fruitful cooperation between two institutions in the areas of municipal services, disaster risk management, and urban regeneration.
The Sustainable Cities Program involves a series of projects, the first one was approved in 2016 and the second in 2018 for a total value of around US $225 million. The aim is to support further projects in future allowing interested municipalities to access long-term financing for their investments.
The Sustainable City Planning and Management Systems component of the project, which is financed through European Union-Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance Grant amounting to 25 million Euro, supports reforms including policies and legislation that improve sustainable urban development planning and enhance urban sustainability. The component supports municipalities in planning and management and for the preparation of feasibility studies, detailed engineering designs, and environmental assessments for municipal subprojects.
Ten metropolitan municipalities and their water and sewerage utilities including Antalya, Balikesir, Denizli, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Malatya, Mardin, Mugla, Ordu, Van will benefit from this technical assistance component financed by the European Union.
The Municipal Investments part of the project will finance municipal infrastructure investments in public transport, water and sanitation, solid waste management, and energy. The cities that will benefit from this component so far include Denizli, Muğla, and Antalya where the investments to be financed include the design and construction of water, sewerage and storm water networks, collectors and Waste Water Treatment Plans.
The project supports 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 platform in coordination with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) which is the Private Sector Arm of the World Bank Group.
The Project thus supports the World Bank’s objective under the maximizing finance for development (MFD) approach through this public-private investment coordination platform.
