Draft to launch Turkish sovereign wealth fund sent to parliament

A draft law for the establishment of the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Turkey was sent to parliament in a bid to create an additional 1.5 percent contribution to annual growth in the next decade, as Reuters has reported on Aug. 2.

The draft included various new regulations in the fields of taxation, public energy projects and investments.
Turkey has been the only country without such a fund among all G-20 countries.

In the initial stage, a specific percentage of public funds and revenue will be allocated to create the main basis of the newly planned wealth management fund.
In the meantime, the fund will create its own resources to finance the country’s mega projects and ease the burden of the banks in the finance sector, according to the Reuters report.  The fund was also planned to act as a stabilizer during financially distressing times.

Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım vowed that Ankara was committed to keeping strong growth on track but provided few details on the new fund, beyond saying it would be worth “tens of billions of dollars” and would not threaten the country’s low budget deficit, in an interview late July.

“It’s a structure that will finance large-scale projects,” he then said.

“We are going to finance investments through this fund instead of the general budget,” added Yıldırım, referring to Turkey’s major infrastructure projects. (Hürriyet Daily News)