Toshiba interested in nuclear power plant in Turkey

TOKYO 

Japanese Toshiba company was interested in investing in nuclear power plant which would be built in Turkey's northern Sinop city.

Turkish Science, Industry & Technology Minister Nihat Ergun, who is currently paying a visit to Japan, said that Toshiba also wanted a Turkish partner in construction, operation and investment of the nuclear power plant.
Following his meeting with Toshiba's CEO Norio Sasaki, Ergun said that Toshiba was willing to open up to regions beyond India, and it was closely following Turkey due to Arab Spring.
Noting that Toshiba did not have any investment in Turkey, Ergun said that Turkey expected the company to make investments in other sectors, besides the nuclear energy.
Turkey has been engaged in talks with Japan since last year to build country's second nuclear power plant in the Black Sea coastal province of Sinop in the north. However, talks were interrupted after the massive earthquake that hit Japan. Japan's magnitude-9 earthquake on March 11, 2011 caused a massive tsunami that crippled the cooling systems at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) nuclear plant in Fukushima.
Turkey and Japan resumed talks on construction of Turkey's second nuclear power plant in country's north coast in July 2011.
During his talks on Wednesday, Ergun said that Japanese NEC company was willing to invest in Fatih project in Turkey.
Japanese informatics and technology company NEC has a great interest in Turkey. It is also interested in Fatih project closely. NEC is willing to make production and investment in Turkey regarding the project, said Ergun who met NEC's CEO Kenichiro Yamanichi yesterday.
Noting that NEC was one of the most important technology companies of Japan, Ergun said that NEC was willing to fully enter the informatics infrastructure of Turkey.
Fatih Project will be put into practice in all schools around Turkey. With this project, 40 thousand schools and nearly 600 thousand classes will be equipped with the latest information technologies and turned into computerized education classes (Smart Class).

(Reporting by Hasan Arslan)