Minister Bolat: We have reached a value of 535 billion dollars in the contracting services sector

The official opening ceremony of the 9th Istanbul Public Private Sector Partnership (PPP) Week was held with the participation of Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat and President of the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEİK) Nail Olpak.

Speaking at the event, Bolat stated that the PPP model is competent in providing public goods and services in a sustainable and scalable manner in sectors such as infrastructure, health, education and technology.

Stating that Turkey is a rapidly growing country located at the intersection of Europe and Asia, Bolat noted that it has made infrastructure development one of its priorities in order to support economic growth, increase welfare and modernize the infrastructure.

Bolat emphasized that Turkey has modernized its superstructure and infrastructure in the last 20 years and developed public services in the areas of health, education, justice, environment and energy , and said, "(Turkey) embarked on an ambitious journey to position itself as a regional leader in global trade and innovation. PPPs played an important role in this transformation and became an indispensable model for the effective delivery of high-quality sustainable projects. Today, PPPs have become the fundamental solution for Turkey's infrastructure development strategy."

"Türkiye has benefited from PPPs in the construction of urban development projects"

Bolat stated that these partnerships, which bring together the strengths of the public and private sectors, ensure that resources are used extremely efficiently, risks are shared, and large-scale projects that neither sector could achieve on their own due to budget constraints are successfully completed. He continued as follows:

"Turkey has benefited from PPPs in the construction of highways, railways, bridges, airports, tunnels, seaports, large transportation networks and energy projects, and urban development projects. Turkey has made great gains in building infrastructure worldwide thanks to PPPs. Projects such as Istanbul New Airport, one of the largest airports in the world, the Eurasia Tunnel, Çanakkale Bridge, Osman Gazi Bridge, and Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge are important intersections of global logistics corridors, bringing Asia and Europe together."

Bolat underlined that, as Türkiye, they have completed these important projects in record time and put them at the service of the Turkish people.

Bolat stated that the efficiency of the PPP model and the balancing of the financial burden played a major role in this success and said that as Minister of Trade, they benefited from the public-private sector cooperation model in investments and projects.

Bolat said, "In this context, we are modernizing our customs offices and customs points at our border gates to make them more efficient, secure and faster. So far, we have successfully completed 19 customs gates in Turkey with the PPP model. Our Ipsala, Habur, Kapıkule, Sarp, Hamzabeyli, Cilvegözü, Dilucu, Esendere, Çıldır Aktaş, Kapıköy, Türkgözü, Pazarkule, Nusaybin and Muratbey customs-internal customs projects are examples of these."

"We are ready to share our PPP experiences"

Bolat stated that Turkey is ready to share its PPP experiences with all relevant parties abroad, and said, “I believe that sharing these experiences will add a visionary dimension to our economic and commercial relations with friendly countries.”

Bolat announced that Turkey has completed 137 contracting services abroad in 137 different countries since 1972, reaching a value of 535 billion dollars with 12,500 projects.

Bolat stated that projects worth 485 billion dollars have been won in 137 countries in the last 22 years and the majority of them have been completed, and continued his words as follows:

"Turkey has gained significant experience in the technical consultancy sector, as well as in the contracting sector, and our companies in the technical consultancy sector will become global players by signing larger projects. Turkey's position as a global player in the international contracting sector and its experience in PPP projects increase the competitive power of our companies. As a result, our companies undertake more projects abroad every year. In addition, our companies take part as investors not only in the construction phase of the projects but also in the operation phase. In this way, they contribute to the development and economic growth of countries."

"The PPP aims to achieve more results with fewer resources"

Minister Bolat stated that the demand for efficiency, sustainability and innovation has never been higher, and that governments and businesses are developing policies to provide more infrastructure, more services and more growth with fewer resources, and are taking into account the needs of future generations.

Noting that the PPP model has emerged as a solution that can turn this challenge into an opportunity, Bolat said, "The PPP aims to achieve more results with fewer resources and aims to provide more financial, human and material resources with the priority of efficiency."

Bolat said that achieving more with less investment requires maximizing the potential of existing resources and delivering projects that create long-term value for the public interest.

Bolat reminded that resource efficiency is directly related to issues such as climate change and sustainability, which are the most critical issues of our day, and said, "Therefore, PPPs offer solutions that significantly increase the potential to mitigate and adapt to the negative effects of climate change by combining the investment power and technical expertise of the private sector, which has the capacity to implement innovative solutions at scale, with the vision, legal framework and policy support of the public sector."

Bolat stated that PPPs represent an important development strategy for Türkiye and underlined that the model in question enables the realization of large and effective projects for the public benefit and citizens.

Following his speech, Minister Bolat attended the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signing ceremonies.

PPP Center of Excellence (PPPCOE) has signed 3 different agreements to increase global collaboration opportunities and knowledge sharing. The first of these was signed with the National PPP Center of Saudi Arabia . The second agreement was made with Belarus for mutual collaboration and knowledge sharing. The last agreement was made with the Talent Economy Platform, a global organization based in Switzerland , to provide global training on PPP through this platform.