Ankara, Türkiye, 6 March 2024 – The Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, the premier multilateral Development Bank of the Global South, has signed a US$120 million agreement with Türkiye’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance to contribute to the country’s reconstruction and recovery plan that strives to fully restore the delivery of urgent and critical health services to the earthquake affected areas.

The financing agreement was signed in Ankara between Mr. Kerem DÖNMEZ, Director General of the Foreign Economic Relations at Türkiye’s Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and Dr. Walid Abdelwahab, Director of IsDB Group Regional Hub Turkiye (RHT), brings IsDB Group’s total funding in response to the 6^th of February 2023 earthquake to more than US$ 320 million.

At the signing ceremony, Mr. DÖNMEZ stated that after the earthquakes in 2023, IsDB was one of the first IFIs to show its support and assistance for the earthquake disaster. In this regard, he conveyed special thanks once again to IsDB for the kind support provided in 2023 for serving the economic recovery of the earthquake-affected region. In addition, he underlined that this facility will play a crucial role in the re-establishment of high-quality health facilities to serve our people in the earthquake region, especially in Kahramanmaraş. Moreover, Mr. DÖNMEZ expressed his intention to strengthen collaboration in the future.

Dr. Walid Abdelwahab, meantime, expressed pleasure over the signing of the financing agreement saying: “IsDB Group, a trusted development partner of Türkiye since 1974, is proudly contributing to this Post-Earthquake Hospitals Reconstruction (PEHR) project which supports the country’s efforts towards rapid delivery of health facilities and services to improve the quality of life for the earthquake affected population. This is the third development financing agreement that we are signing with the Government of Türkiye in the past three months all aimed at bringing life fully back on track in the southern provinces which bore the brunt of the devastating earthquake of February 2023. We shall spare no efforts to see these projects delivered at the earliest with the support of our partners in the line ministries.”

Undertaken by the Government of Türkiye, IsDB Group, and a host of other international co-financiers, PEHR is a mega project that is being implemented by Türkiye’s Ministry of Health.  

It envisages the construction of at least 13 hospitals in the earthquake-affected provinces in Southern Türkiye. Once operational, it shall provide more than 1350 modern hospital beds that will avail access to modern medical in/out-patient healthcare for nearly 2.8 million people.

Türkiye is a founding member of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB). Since 1974 to date, the IsDB Group has approved more than US$ 13 billion in financing for hundreds of projects in Türkiye’s different socio-economic sectors, including health, green and highspeed transport, renewable energy production, education, agriculture, international trade, private sector development, as well as insurance coverage for exports and investment.