EX-IM CAN HELP TURKISH COMPANIES BUY U.S. EXPORTS, CHAIRMAN SAYS
WASHINGTON, DC- Turkey, which is already a top market for Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank) trade finance, can expand its private-sector purchases of U.S. goods and services with Ex-Im Bank support, Bank Chairman Philip Merrill told Turkish business and government leaders during a week of high-level meetings in Istanbul this week.
I am encouraged by the high degree of interest in procuring U.S. exports for Turkish infrastructure development, Merrill said, after meeting with officials of InterGen, the Sabanci Group, Zorlu Holding, and the American Business Forum, as well as Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas to discuss Turkey's infrastructure priorities. Although Ex-Im Bank has more than $2 billion of exposure in Turkey, because of Turkish companies' desire to buy more U.S. exports and our desire to support more export-dependent jobs in the United States, there is clearly room for additional Bank financing for Turkish purchases.
Ex-Im Bank has a long history of supporting U.S. exports to Turkey, having authorized more than $1.5 billion in financing for energy-sector projects such as Gebze, Adapazari, Izmir, Ankara, and Kayseri, as well as electrical power plants for industrial facilities that produce electricity for their own use. In addition, Ex-Im Bank has helped finance a wide variety of other U.S. exports to Turkey, ranging from hotel equipment and medical supplies to generators for a thermal-spring tourist resort.
Turkey purchased more than $2.9 billion in U.S. goods in 2003, making it the second-largest U.S. export market in the Middle East.
Ex-Im Bank, the official U.S. export credit agency, is in its 70th year of helping finance the sale of U.S. exports, primarily to emerging markets throughout the world, by providing loan guarantees, export credit insurance, and direct loans. In fiscal year 2003, Ex-Im Bank authorized financing to support $14.3 billion of U.S. exports.For more information, visit www.exim.gov.