Announcement of World Bank President to Visit Turkey on May 14, 1989

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE World Bank 1818 H Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20433, U.S.A.* Telephone: (202) 477-1234 BANK NEWS RELEASE NO. 89/S28 Contact: Fawzi Rihane (202) 473-2675 WORLD BANK PRESIDENT TO VISIT TURKEY ANKARA, May 14, 1989 -- World Bank President Barber B. Conable will start a four-day visit to Turkey today. This will be Mr. Conable's first trip to the country as World Bank President. Mr. Conable who has been the Bank's president since 1986, will meet with senior government officials and leading representatives in the financial, banking, and business communities. He will also visit industrial, agricultural, and educational development projects in the field, including a trip to the Central Anatolia area. During its long-standing association with Turkey -- which began with a grain storage project in July 1950 -- the World Bank has supported the country in various sectors of the economy such as industry, agriculture, energy, transportation, education and health. The World Bank's major vehicle during the period 1980 - 1984 in support of the economy as a whole was the structural adjustment lending program (SAL) during which five SALs totaling about $1.6 billion were made. The World Bank's assistance strategy for Turkey has supported its medium-term objectives of restructuring the economy by placing greater reliance on market forces and adopting a more outward-oriented development strategy. The World Bank and its concessionary lending affiliate, the International Development Association (IDA), has provided more than $9 billion in loans to some 116 projects. In the World Bank's present loan portfolio, the sectors are balanced among industry and the financial sector (27 percent); energy (23 percent); agriculture (21 percent); and infrastructure, transportation, and urban development (20 percent); with an increasing amount for population and human resources (6 percent). The remainder (3 percent) went to the World Bank's direct participation in cofinancing with commercial banks. The portfolio includes four sector adjustment loans, the most recent of which was the second financial sector adjustment loan approved in June 1988 for $400 million which supported the government's continued financial sector reform program. The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank's affiliate that promotes the growth of productive private enterprises in developing countries, has approved investments in 47 projects amounting to about $445 million to date. Turkey recently joined the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), the World Bank's newest affiliate.