ANKARA - World Bank is launching a new strategy of assistance for Turkey.
Releasing a statement, World Bank said that the program envisaged support of up to 4.5 billion U.S. dollars for the next three years.
The statement noted that the World Bank's Board of Executive Directors discussed on Thursday a new Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Turkey.
It noted that the Turkish private sector might further benefit from loans, investments and advisory services provided by IFC, the World Bank's private sector financing arm, and from guarantees against non-commercial risks, provided by MIGA, another member of the Bank Group.
Stating that the objective of the World Bank was to help Turkey implement fundamental reforms to reduce economic vulnerability and achieve high and stable growth, the statement said that the World Bank Group would also assist the authorities in addressing some long neglected social and environmental problems as the country prepared for EU membership.
The statement said that top priority would be given to completion of the public sector reform and stated that the new CAS would support the government's efforts to reform the social security system, further improve the efficiency of public expenditure management and decentralize service delivery and implement municipal reform. It added that strengthening the legal and judiciary system might also benefit from assistance.
Noting that although the economy had been growing in 2002 and this year, many citizens continued to lack access to basic health and education services, the statement said that the new CAS would continue to support the reform of the education sector at the secondary and post secondary level, assist the authorities in transforming the health sector, and focus on social protection.
It stressed that the new CAS would support the continuation of financial sector reforms, provide funding to help enterprises increase exports, and strengthen the small and medium size enterprise sector.
Stating that given Turkey's high seismic risks and history of flooding, improving emergency preparedness and seismic risk mitigation were critical, the statement said that the new CAS would support the government's efforts in this area, as well as in environmental and a natural resource management that was a high priority for Turkey.
The statement said that the previous CAS for Turkey covered the 2001-2003 period, and the projects that had been implemented during that period had already yielded positive results on the ground, noting that these included, among others, tangible improvements in basic education, including a substantial increase in girls' school enrollment; physical and psychological rehabilitation following the 1999 earthquakes; strengthened stability of the banking system; improvements in public sector management; modernization of agriculture policies; more effective natural resource management; and improved targeting of social welfare for the poorest.
It added that during the implementation of CAS, there would be also continued strong collaboration with the World Bank Group's development partners, including the IMF, the EU, members of the UN system, as well as bilateral donors.
World Bank Country Director for Turkey Andrew Vorkink said that the Bank would continue to support Turkey's economic reform program focusing on improvement of public sector and business climate, to help create the conditions for high economic growth and to help prepare it for integration into the EU.
Stating that the assistance program attached great importance to human development, Vorkink said that they remained committed to a strong partnership with Turkey in the years to come.
(EÖ-AÖ) 07.11.2003