Vice President Yılmaz holds talks with EBRD head in London
VICE President Cevdet Yılmaz held yesterday talks with Odile Renaud-Basso, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), as part of his official contacts in London.
Yılmaz arrived in London on Monday for investor talks and official contacts and met Renaud-Basso and delegations at the Turkish Embassy in London.
The two discussed the EBRD investments in Türkiye and the potential for further cooperation.
“Green financing, high value-added exports and technology-oriented sector investments and the EBRD supports for women and youth were among the other priority topics of our meeting,” the Turkish vice president wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Recalling that to date, the EBRD has provided more than 19 billion euros ($20.6 billion) in financial support to private and public institutions in Türkiye, Yılmaz thanked the bank’s delegation “for their close solidarity after the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes in Türkiye” and hoped that cooperation would continue to enhance.
The financing provided by the EBRD to Türkiye climbed to a new record high of nearly 2.5 billion euros in 2023, boosted by the lender’s response in the wake of a pair of powerful earthquakes that struck the country’s southeastern region in February.
Türkiye, thus, emerged as the country that received the largest volume of investment in the EBRD’s portfolio in 2023, followed by Ukraine, with financing at over 2 billion euros. In 2022, the EBRD had invested 1.63 billion euros in the country, while in 2021, the bank’s investments in Türkiye topped 2 billion euros.
Separate meetings with British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and representatives of the Turkish Cypriot community were also expected during the day, according to an Anadolu Agency (AA) report.
Yılmaz was also expected to meet with representatives of the Turkish community at the Yunus Emre Institute Turkish Cultural Center and to hold a meeting with investors at the London Stock Exchange for talks on investment opportunities in Türkiye.
The head of the Presidential Investment Office, Ahmet Burak Dağlıoğlu was accompanying Yılmaz.
Following the shift toward more conventional policymaking and subsequent interest rate hikes, Türkiye has sought to attract foreign investors, as top economy officials held a series of meetings to acquaint the international community with policies and the new medium-term program targeting sustainable growth, unveiled last September.