04 February 2016•Update: 09 February 2016
By Gokhan Kurtaran
LONDON
The integration of Syrian refugees into the Turkish employment market will increase economic growth, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has told Anadolu Agency.
Speaking in London, Jean-Patrick Marquet, EBRD Turkey director, said the institution welcomed Turkey's efforts to give work permit to thousands of Syrian refugees, a move which may increase economic activity.
"We most welcome the decision made by the Turkish government. Cash is good but jobs are much better,” he said, adding that refugees have skills which can be harnessed to grow new businesses.
"My expectation is that, in the medium-term, once the opportunities created for those trained people have been realized, that could generate a pickup in economic activity for the host community.
“That’s the whole objective behind employment and entrepreneurship programs," Marquet added.
Marquet said that the EBRD has approved in principle the obtaining of €900 million [$1 billion] for use in private sector and infrastructural investment to support Syrian refugees.
"It’s only once the donors are confirmed that the [money] can be granted,” Marquet said adding that a full program of expenditure was still some months away.
He said that the Turkish part of the program would be around €485 million in total, split 70/30 percent between municipalities and SME/employment investment, respectively.
"That’s in recognition of the fact that Turkish municipalities in the southeast region have many refugees, as many as their own population, sometimes even more refugees than Turkish population.
“There we want to use the partnership we have with Turkish banks.
“Those Turkish banks have branches. People on the ground can access those SMEs. We will use the grants to limit the risks for the banks.
“That’s what we call risk sharing. By limiting the risks for the banks, we will intensify the banks lending more to those SMEs," Marquet added.
The EBRD invested €1.9 billion in Turkey last year.
