INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS IN THE PIPELINE

This section is based on State Planning Organisation's publications

Transportation and communications are now the key target sectors in the globalization policies of governments. Turkey's natural bridge position in the framework of the integration of Eastern Europe and new emerging markets of Caucasus and Central Asia makes infrastructure investments economically attractive.

This is one of the main reasons why Turkey's strategic location calls for developing a transport network from Europe to the Middle East and Central Asia. In the context of the connection between Pan-European transport corridors and Central Asia, the role of Turkey as one of the most important members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Mediterranean basin gained more importance in the East-West and North-South connections.

With its highway network including 1726 km. of expressway, Turkey provides the shortest and the most economical connection from Europe to Central Asia and to the Middle East. Also, the modern road transport fleet with its high transport capacity and more than 100,000 trips annually to Europe is a good indicator of the economic dynamism of Turkey.

Turkey's railway network is in need of modernisation. Modern methods of railway management to meet the demands of the clients closely and to adapt to changing market conditions will be implemented in order to take the necessary share from the upturn of demand in railway transportation. Investments for modernisation and improvement will be placed emphasis on so as to benefit from existing railway network at the highest. A total of 2000 km. road renewal and 1.300 km. electrification will be materialised.

Studies on updating the existing engineering design of the Istanbul-Ankara high-speed railroad link project which will be an important part of the connection between Europe and Asia with a tunnel under the Bosphorus and the projects of the parts of the line which were not involved before are in the pipeline.

For airport investments, the priority will be laid on rising service capacities and level of standards of existing airports, mainly Atatürk and Antalya. It is anticipated that Isparta, Bodrum, Samsun-Çarsamba and Sanli Urfa conventional airports will be completed in due five years plan period (2000-2005), so that the total capacity will be increased up to 45 millions passenger, 30 million of which will benefit on international lines.

In the maritime sector, as of 1999, the tonnage of Turkish Merchant fleet, excluding leased ships, reached 10.4 million DWT. Ports, equipment and management systems are being continuously modernized. In this framework preliminary studies have been launched for Marmara, Aegean and Mediterranean coastline to alleviate the burden of existing ports and to fulfill the future demand. Container traffic as well as the capacity of loading and unloading facilities at Turkish harbours are expected to continue increasing and reach 1.6 billions ton capacity for loading, 170 million tons for unloading.

The telecommunication sector in Turkey also made considerable progress in recent years. In this context with 18 million subscribers at the end of 1999, a penetration rate of 27,8 % has been realised in Turkey. The objective is to reach a 40 % penetration rate in the year 2005. Taking into consideration the estimated population which will be around 80 million in 2005, 12.8 million new lines will be provided in the coming years. In 2000, the total value allocated from the budget of Turk Telekom to 14 ongoing investment projects is 309.1 trillion Turkish Lira.

One of the main components of the year 2000 program, is the privatization of Turk Telecom. The legal framework has been finalized in 1996 and 49 percent of the Turk Telecom is expected to be privatilized. Until recently, the GSM services in Turkey were offered by two consortias under a revenue sharing agreement with Turk Telecom. Then, these revenue sharing agreements were converted into operating licenses and these licenses were granted to the two Turkish GSM companies. Market projection for the demand for GSM has shown tremendous growth. The bidding for the third licence for instalment and operating of a GSM 1800 network was won by Turkish Is Bankasi and Telecom Italia Mobile.

Some investment opportunities concerning infrastructure projects in Turkey are as follows: