Gaziantep, Turkey, 14 February 2020 – The city of Gaziantep in Turkey, hosted a major two-day procurement workshop in February 2020, in collaboration with Iller Bank and the transport sector of the Regional Hub of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group in Turkey.

The event was attended by 28 senior procurement experts and specialists from various organizations. IsDB Group’s new procurement guidelines, underlying principles, associated procedures, and end-to-end procurement processes were presented to the participants representing Iller Bank General Directorate and its Regional Directorates of Gaziantep, Konya, and Kayseri as well as the Metropolitan Municipalities of the three cities.

The procurement workshop provided a suitable opportunity to clarify various aspects of the new procurement guidelines and delivery of more specific guidance on the procurement planning and other project related specific requirements. It also clarified implementation aspects in interactive knowledge sharing sessions.

Four decades of Development Cooperation

Turkey is a founding member of the IsDB Group and during the last 4 decades, the Bank has provided nearly US $12 billion of financing for the development of various sectors including; transport, renewable energy, health, education, agriculture and construction of seismic resistant public buildings. Procurement is one of the key process which helps in the successful implementation of Bank’s interventions.

Facilitating a EUR 150 Million Investment

The procurement workshop at Gaziantep came as part of preparations and expeditious implementation of the three IsDB financed Light Rail Transit Projects in Gaziantep, Kayseri, and Konya Municipalities. The total amount of the IsDB financing for these three projects is approximately EUR 150 million.

It provided a useful knowledge building opportunity to Iller Bank and Municipalities which further helped them in enhancing their internal capacities and better preparation of Procurement Strategy, Procurement Plans, Pre-qualification and Bidding documents, etc. as well as expediting the relevant procurement processes in relation to the aforementioned projects. 

The participants appreciated the comprehensiveness of presentations in the national language and expressed their high satisfaction on the context, contents and coverage. Through a pre-designed workshop quality survey, they rated the event “a success with an overall rating of very successful, effective and highly satisfactory.”

Key Expected Benefits of the Three Projects

The key expected benefits of the three projects include (i) significant savings in travel time and costs; (ii) considerable operational cost savings; (iii) development of a balanced multi-modal urban transportation system; (iv) enhanced economic, cultural and social interactions; (v) increased economic and tourism activities; (vi) generation of employment, trade and gross value addition based on better integration into key Value Chains.

IsDB Group’s Contributions to Turkey’s Transport Sector

During recent past, the IsDB contributions to the development of transport sector in Turkey have scaled up to a sizeable amount. Amongst IsDB’s most notable successful interventions to Turkey’s transport sector development are: “the Development of Ankara-Konya High Speed Railway Project” at a cost of EUR 174.35 million and the “under implementation 10 High Speed Train Sets Project”  at a cost of EUR 312 million. The first of the 10 train sets arrived in Turkey in early December 2019, precisely one year ahead of schedule, thanks to the intense and efficient coordination between the IsDB Group Regional Hub and the Government of Turkey.