Turkish Eximbank to offer interest-free credit

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish Eximbank will extend credit with zero interest rates to constructors purchasing materials from Turkey for their overseas projects, the Turkish economy minister said on Wednesday.

Nihat Zeybekci was speaking at the awards ceremony of the Foreign Contracting and Technical Consultancy Services organized by The Turkish Contractors Association in Ankara.

"The transportation of Turkish-origin materials will be fully supported within the scope of overseas projects undertaken by constructors. This, however, is limited to African countries at present," Zeybekci said.

The capital of the state-owned bank rose to 10 billion Turkish liras ($2.77 billion) from 3.7 billion Turkish liras ($1 billion) under President Erdogan's instruction, Zeybekci added.

"We aim for the yearly credit volume to exceed $40 billion by 2017. Moreover, again with the president's [Recep Tayyip Erdogan] instruction, our other target is to raise the credit volume of Exim Bank to $100 billion," Zeybekci added.

Noting that the sector's overseas operation started with the construction of a port in Libya in 1972, Zeybekci implied the measures were necessary to meet rising costs in the construction sector.