Announcement of Turkey: World Bank Supports Access to Finance Small and Medium Enterprises Project on June 8, 2006

Turkey: World Bank Supports Access To Finance Small And Medium Enterprises Project Contacts: In Ankara: Tunya Celasin, (90-312) 459 83 43 Tcelasin@worldbank.org In Washington: Miriam Van Dyck: (202) 458 2931 Mvandyck@worldbank.org Ankara, June 8, 2006—The World Bank approved today a Euro 150 Million (approximately US$190 million) Access to Finance for Small and Medium Enterprises Project for Turkey. The Access to Finance for Small and Medium Enterprises Project’s main development objective is to increase opportunities for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey to obtain credit, while contributing to their growth. By providing SMEs with access to credit, the project will help increase the sales and productivity of Turkish SMEs. The project will also provide credit to regions in the east, southeast, and center of the country, where credit is less developed. This will help ensure that these areas are not left behind and that the credit and productivity gaps between more and less advanced regions are closed. The project will finance SMEs under two credit lines: (i) A credit line of Euro 100 million to be intermediated by Türkiye Sınai Kalkınma Bankası (TSKB) through retail banks and leasing companies, which will in turn on-lend to SMEs; and (ii) (ii) a credit line of Euro 50 million to be intermediated by Halkbank, which will provide credit directly to SMEs. On the occasion of the loan approval of the Project, Andrew Vorkink, Country Director for Turkey stated: “SME development is one the most important parts of the Turkish economy with the objective to improve the productivity of the private sector and enhance the country’s competitiveness. “Turkish SMEs can be a powerful engine for sustaining Turkey’s growth, creating employment, maintaining social stability and integrating the Turkish productive sector into the EU and the global economy. SMEs have, however, been underserved by credit and thus have been held back from reaching their potential. Through this loan this situation should be improved, including in the east and southeast of the country.” The lending instrument for the Access for Small and Medium Enterprises Project is a Fixed Spread Loan (FSL) with a 15-year maturity and a 5-year grace period, in Euro with an innovative embedded option to convert into New Turkish Liras if requested by the borrowers. ### For more information about the World Bank’s work in Turkey, visit: http://www.worldbank.org.tr. For more information about this project, visit: http://www.worldbank.org/projects