Turkey to spend $21B to develop eastern provinces

ANKARA

Turkey will spend 62 billion Turkish liras (around $21 billion) in its eastern and southeastern region over the course of four years as part of its public investment package, according to Prime Ministry’s statement Monday.

The statement gave details of the package for the country’s east and southeastern provinces, where over a year ago the PKK terrorist group resumed a decades-old armed campaign against the Turkish state.

The package was first announced by Prime Minister Binali Yildirim at a meeting in southeastern Diyarbakir province Sunday.

According to the statement, 19.3 billion Turkish liras ($6.4 billion) would be given to the Turkish Transport, Maritime and Communications Ministry, 17.68 billion Turkish liras ($6 billion) to Food, Agriculture and Livestock and Forestry and Water Management Ministries, 10 billion Turkish liras ($3.3 billion) to Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, 5.5 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion) to Housing Development Administration, 5.3 billion Turkish liras ($1.7 billion) to Health Ministry, 4 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion) to Energy Ministry, 526 million Turkish liras ($175 million) to Turkey's Ministry of Development, and 133 million Turkish liras ($45 million) to Family and Social Policies Ministry.

The Health Ministry will construct at least 100 hospitals across the region and the Housing Development Administration will build more than 30,700 houses, the statement said.

The statement added at least 800 factories, 36 stadiums and 15 youth centers would be built in the region, which would create at least 40,000 new jobs.