The UK government will provide EUR 2.1bn (USD 2.3bn) loan to fund the construction of the 503-kilometer Ankara-Izmir High-Speed Railway (HSR).
The loan, which was announced by International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Treasury and Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati at the UK-Turkey Green Finance Conference held in London, will be the biggest ever sustainable, civil infrastructure deal of the UK government.
“Turkey is a vital trading partner for the UK. Our shared global outlook on free trade and the environment is the driving force behind economic growth in our two nations,” said Trevelyan.
The loan will help Turkey to finance the Ankara-Izmir HSR and decarbonize travel, with major contracts awarded to British and Turkish businesses.
“We have given utmost importance to the environmental and social procedures during this project and as the Ministry of Treasury and Finance we are closely following the improvements of such issues. We also desire to be among the active and important players of the rapidly growing green finance market,” Nebati said.
The financing was led by Credit Suisse and Standard Chartered Bank with support from UK Export Finance (UKEF) and meets internationally recognized sustainability standards and is aligned with the Green Loan Principles.
Turkey is one of the UK’s most important independent trading partners. The bilateral trading relationship was worth GBP 17.5bn in the four quarters to the end of Q3 2021, increasing by GBP 1.4bn from the same period in 2020.
