A recently opened vast business district pledging to make Istanbul a financial hub concerns not only Türkiye but also the nearby region, a senior official said Tuesday.
The $3.4 billion Istanbul Finance Center (IFC) was inaugurated on Monday in a gradual launch that started with the opening of the section hosting banks. It aims to make Istanbul a competitive destination for international financial institutions and investors and to support the growth of the Turkish economy.
"The fact that Istanbul is a financial center is an issue that concerns not only our country but also our immediate geography," Murat Kurum, minister of environment, urbanization and climate change, told a meeting at the IFC with media representatives.
"On this occasion, the fact that it is close to the Middle East and in a position to serve Europe will increase its value in this sense," Kurum stressed.
He said the employment areas in the center were important for the financial sector and the infrastructure of finance.
"We have implemented a very important project for our Istanbul with schools, social facilities and areas that will serve our citizens and employees as part of the center," he noted.
The IFC project started in 2009 in the Ümraniye district on Istanbul’s Anatolian side. The center will be a new home to most of Türkiye’s most prominent financial institutions and authorities.
These include the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT), the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST), the Banking Regulation and Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK), and the Capital Markets Board of Türkiye (SPK).
The ceremony on Monday marked the start of a new chapter for the country’s public lenders, Ziraat Bank, Halkbank and VakıfBank, all of which have relocated to the center.
Run by the Türkiye Wealth Fund and developed in coordination with the Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change Ministry, the IFC will host prominent domestic and international banks, participation finance companies, financial investment and portfolio management companies, and insurance firms.
"God willing, the value of our Istanbul in terms of finance will increase with the project ... The current investment cost of this project is TL 65 billion," said Kurum.
Kurum said the IFC would relieve traffic congestion because it has a parking lot with 26,500 vehicles.
The center boasts 1.3 million square meters of office space, a 100,000-square-meter shopping center, a conference and performance center for 2,100 people, and a five-star hotel spanning 30,000 square meters.
Rebuilding drive in quake zone
Elaborating on ongoing efforts after catastrophic earthquakes struck the southeastern region more than two months ago, Kurum said the rebuilding drive is underway. The first village houses are due to be delivered this weekend.
The Feb. 6 quakes killed over 50,000 people, razed hundreds of thousands of buildings and ripped the southeastern region’s infrastructure.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has pledged to swiftly rebuild the 11 provinces devastated by what is described as the worst disaster in Türkiye’s modern history and promised to deliver homes within a year.
Kurum said they are eager to complete and deliver 319,000 houses in one year, which will gradually increase to 650,000.
Foundations for some 100,000 units have been laid in the first 75 days after the disaster, Kurum noted.
"The 650,000 houses will be delivered stage by stage as in the previous earthquakes, and 11 of our provinces will stand up simultaneously. We called it the ‘Rising Anatolia’ project. Anatolia is really rising," he added.