WB director says interest grows in Turkey's economic achievements

ANKARA (A.A) - July 20, 2011 - The president of the World Bank said on Wednesday that there was increasing interest in Turkey's economic achievements not only in its region but also in the world.
Robert Zoellick eulogized Turkey's economic achievements, and underlined importance of Turkey's and other emerging economies' growth.
Turkey's economic growth success was a situation obvious to not only Turkish people, and there was a growing interest in Turkey's achievements not only in its region but also in the world, Zoellick told a joint press conference with Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan in Ankara.
Zoellick said some countries were rapidly growing, and some others had a slow growth pace, wihch could be a problem.
The World Bank director said in such a case, emerging economies could face an inflation problem and Turkey should be careful about that. 
Zoellick said he was visiting Turkey to learn about Turkey's future plans and how the bank could support Turkey's plans.
The director said Turkey had focused on employment, education and energy, and the World Bank hoped to help Turkey in those areas.
Zoellick defined Turkey as a key actor that had an increasing importance and that was supporting development of other countries, and said therefore the bank wished to work with G-20 member Turkey and boost its cooperation with Turkey regarding Turkey's role in regional economy.
Turkey was the second country which was using the highest loan from the World Bank, and the bank had many significant investments in Turkey, Zoellick said.
Zoellick said the World Bank had allocated 7.6 billion USD to Turkey in recent days, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) had a 2.6 billion USD of commitment in Turkey's portfolio.
The director said he would also meet private sector representatives and NGOs during his stay in Turkey.
Zoellick also said Turkey had taken successful steps in the last decade, and highlighted importance of countries' standing firm on their own feet.
Later in the day, Zoellick will attend Turkish Women Entrepreneurs' Association's (KAGIDER) meeting on the Equal Opportunity Model program in Istanbul. He will also visit Natural Disaster Management Coordination Center in Cagaloglu established within the scope of seismic risk mitigation project, supported by the World Bank.