THE WORLD BANK AND ITS STRATEGIES IN TURKEY
Turkey has become a member of the World Bank on March 11, 1947. Since its membership, Turkey has benefited from various credits of the World Bank. Depending of their capital share in the Bank, members have varying voting rates.
Below in Table 1, capital shares and voting rates of ten member countries are listed. As one can see in the table, the biggest capital share and the voting rate belong to USA. Developed economies such as Japan, Germany, France, and UK follow USA. Turkey’s share in World Bank’s total capital amounts to % 0,53. This makes up $832.8 million (WB, 2010).According to the regulations of the World Bank, a country’s capital share is not parallel to the credit it can obtain. That said, it is directly linked to voting rate and thus, has effect on organization’s decision making processes. In other words, voting rate is the basic means that countries can use to manipulate organization’s decisions and actions. This fact has encouraged countries to become
Table 1. 10 biggest economies in terms of capital share in the World Bank and Turkey
| Capital (Million $) | Rate in Total Capital (%) | Vote Number | Rate in Total Votes (%) | |
| USA | 26.496,90 | 16,83 | 265.219 | 16,36 |
| Japan | 12.700,00 | 8,07 | 127.250 | 7,85 |
| Germany | 7.239,20 | 4,60 | 72.649 | 4,48 |
| France | 6.939,70 | 4,41 | 69.647 | 4,30 |
| UK | 6.939,70 | 4,41 | 69.647 | 4,30 |
| China | 4.479,90 | 2,85 | 45.049 | 2,78 |
| Canada | 4.479,50 | 2,84 | 45.045 | 2,78 |
| India | 4.479,50 | 2,84 | 45.045 | 2,78 |
| Italy | 4.479,50 | 2,84 | 45.045 | 2,78 |
| Russia | 4.479,50 | 2,84 | 45.045 | 2,78 |
| Turkey | 832,80 | 0,53 | 8.578 | 0,53 |
Source: WB, 2010
members with higher capital shares (Ozturk, 2006: 46-52).
Turkey has benefited from World Bank credits in various projects. Some of these projects are as follows (WB, 2013)• Health Transition Project Adaptable Program Loan: While only %24 of the poorest one-tenth of the total population was covered by health insurance, this number increased to %82 in 2008. Whereas the number of people registered to family medicine system in 15 pilot cities in 2003 was zero, the rate increased to %90 in 33 cities in 2009. While patient satisfaction rate for medical services in public hospitals was %38 in 2003, it increased to %67 in 2009. Social security system were centralized and transferred to the Ministry of Health. Now people can choose where to be treated.
• Renewable Energy Project: Renewable energy sources (hydro, geothermal, wind, landfill gas) that can produce yearly 3.810 GWh and 966 MW electricity, as well as reducing at least 1.7 million ton of greenhouse gas emission.
Electricity Distribution and
Rehabilitation Project: In the framework of the project, frequency of duration of power cuts that consumers suffered has decreased in eight targeted regional distribution company; on the other hand, collection of revenues in these eight regional distribution companies has also decreased.
Energy Community of South East Europe Project: In 2006, a competitive electricity market of wholesale started operating. Whereas the rate of transmitted electricity (which means electricity sold on the market) was very low, it increased to %30 in 2009. While the number of system- related accidents was 21 in 2004, this number decreased to 19 in 2008.
Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project: 418 public buildings were reinforced or rebuilt for earthquakes. 69 additional buildings (among which are hospitals) are being reinforced, and 110 schools are in tender processes for reinforcement. Reinforced and re-built schools host around 1 million students and 33,300 teachers. Hospitals give services to more than 25,000 patients daily, and this number might triple in case of a disaster.
• Export Finance Intermediary Loan: Export rates of targeted companies averagely increased % 81. While the real rate of growth in these participant companies was %10.4 between 2005 and 2008, the rate for the companies compared was % 0. It is observed that participant companies are likely to develop new products (% 58 as opposed to % 29), improve environmental management (% 79 as opposed to % 47), accept new technologies to reduce costs (% 88 as opposed to % 61), export to new markets (% 69 as opposed to % 48) and extend their customer base (% 79 as opposed to % 58).
• Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) Loan: With a focus on underserved regions such as Eastern Anatolia and hinterlands, 500 companies are granted medium term financing throughout Turkey. Participant SMEs represent more than 20 sectors, including printing, plastics, tourism and food.
• Restoring Equitable Growth and Employment Programmatic Development Policy Loan: The peak point of the use of neutral intermediaries in crises has been more than $1 billion. The number of people who benefited from short term work subsidies was 40,000 in December 2009. While the amount of credits granted to SMEs was 83.9 billion TL in late 2009, this number increased to 103.6 billion TL in July 2010. The number of people participating I§KUR’s vocational training programs is expected to reach 300,000in the two year period between 2009 and 2010.
Besides the projects listed above, Country Partnership Strategy for 2008-2011 enacted in February 2008 is based on the Ninth Development Plan which aims “to help Turkey complete its harmonization process for EU membership, and bring steady growth, fair distribution of income, globally competitive power, and knowledge society.” This strategy was drawn up by government, businesses, and non-governmental groups. Country Partnership Agreement anticipates collaboration for development in three major fields: increasing Turkey’s competitiveness and creating more and better job opportunities; reinforcing Turkey’s health and social security systems; providing more efficient public services.
In Table 2, one can see the projects and areas where the credits from the World Bank were used. The credits Turkey has received from the World Bank for different projects amount to almost $5 billion.