Milliyet - Türkiye’s second nuclear power plant to be built by a Japanese-led consortium in Sinop on the country’s Black Sea coast will act as a catalyst for further deepening the multi-level cooperation between Türkiye and Japan, according to Türkiye’s Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
On an official visit to Japan as part of a Far Eastern tour also including Singapore and Malaysia, Türkiye’s Prime Minister said that the USD 22 billion nuclear power plant deal would take the already strong Turkish-Japanese cooperation to a higher level. Erdogan called on Japanese companies to seize opportunities in Türkiye, both as direct investments and by taking part in infrastructure projects.
“Japanese companies interested in investing in Türkiye have our full support at every stage. The Ministry of Economy and the Investment Support and Promotion Agency of Türkiye (ISPAT) stand ready to assist any investor”, Erdogan said at a conference organized by Japan’s leading business daily, Nikkei, in Tokyo. Speaking of the importance of the nuclear power plant deal signed between Türkiye and Japan last year, Erdogan said that Turkish and Japanese companies were already cooperating on a huge suspension bridge scheduled to be built over Izmit Bay of the Marmara Sea.
“A similar cooperation can be realized for the planned bridge over the Canakkale Strait”, Erdogan said, stating that the two countries can take joint steps for the project. Türkiye plans to build a bridge spanning the Dardanelles, the southwest part of the strategic Turkish Straits that connect the Black Sea to the Aegean. The proposed bridge will be put to tender by 2015 and built using the build-operate-transfer model.
Türkiye saw a stellar increase in Japanese investments in recent years. In close cooperation with ISPAT, three of Japan’s largest lenders, BTMU, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp (SMBC) and Mizuho Corporate Bank, have made their entries into the country while Sumitomo Rubber Industries, also with ISPAT assistance, is building a tire factory in Central Anatolia for USD 500 million. Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda have been in production in Türkiye for decades.