The state-owned Türk Eximbank, which supports Turkey's exporters, has signed a $350 million loan deal with the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) Turkey.
As part of the deal, Türk Eximbank would receive the funding with a maturity of three years. A signing ceremony was held at the Türk Eximbank headquarters with Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan, Türk Eximbank General Manager Adnan Yıldırım, ICBC Turkey Chairman Xiangyang Gao and ICBC Turkey General Manager Shaoxiong Xie in attendance.
Speaking at the program, Minister Pekcan stressed the importance of the commercial relations between Turkey and China. She underlined that the $350-million loan deal with the ICBC Turkey Bank is important for Türk Eximbank, in terms of diversifying and increasing the resources, which in turn is important for the exporters to find new sources of financing and receive more support in the process.
She noted that China ranks third in Turkey's exports and second in its imports. Pekcan said that they would join forces to increase exports. She added that the global economy is now in "slowbalization," meaning a downward trend, in which protection measures, the slowdown in the European economy and the uncertainty in the Brexit process play an important role.
The minister said Turkey's main target for the next 10 years is to rise to the level of high-income countries. "Our exports play a major role in achieving this goal. 2019 will be a year of actions," she added and recalled that as of 2018, Türk Eximbank has financed 53 percent of export credits and 26 percent of exports.
"The agreement signed today reveals our diversified market. Turkey is now evaluating all packages in financing," Pekcan noted.
The loan complies with Türk Eximbank's strategy to diversify its funding capabilities and increase its medium-long-term loan portfolio due to the fact that the loan is cost-effective with a maturity term.
Thus, Türk Eximbank, whose foreign debt stock exceeds $10 billion, has recently made a new addition to its medium-long term resources it has obtained in the funding markets. With this loan, Türk Eximbank has provided a total of $1.3 billion since the beginning of 2019.
In his speech at the signing ceremony, Türk Eximbank General Manager Adnan Yıldırım said the funding provided by ICBC Turkey shows confidence in the bank, Turkey and Turkish exporters. Pointing out that the resource they have received from abroad since January 2019 has reached $1.3 billion, Yıldırım said the resource from ICBC Turkey has hit a volume of $700 million in total.
ICBC Turkey Chairman Xiangyang Gao noted that this successful transaction is an indicator of ICBC Turkey's confidence in the Turkish banking system and Türk Eximbank. He added that the relations between the two banks will continue to develop further and add value in the future.
He also pointed to Turkey's strategic importance in terms of the "One Belt, One Road" initiative, saying that the country, which is located on the old Silk Road, has very important advantages in this new initiative. Gao further stressed that as ICBC, they focus on investments and infrastructure projects of Chinese and Turkish investors in the Turkey leg of "One Belt, One Road" initiative, pledging full support in project financing.