Within the scope of the two-day program, new developments in national and international financing, environment-focused infrastructure investments, Turkey Investment Platform and several financing opportunities concerning municipalities will be discussed with expert speakers from relevant institutions and organizations.
Delivering the opening speech of the congress, Kayhan Özüm, Deputy Secretary General of the UMT, informed the participants about the duties and responsibilities of the UMT and underlined that the UMT endeavors to find common solutions to the common problems of municipalities. Stating that steps such as having representatives abroad will be taken in the upcoming period for the direct representation of municipalities, Özüm said, "We strive to directly involve our municipalities in the work carried out by international organizations such as the European Union (EU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations (UN) and to implement our projects in this direction."
Ahmet Hakan Atik, Head of Project Implementation Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for EU Affairs, delivered the keynote speech of the congress, emphasizing the need for administrative know-how and financing in order to cope with the problems related to urbanization; "Access to financing is becoming more and more difficult every day. It is a period of intense competition. Access to finance is difficult but not impossible. Many resources are available for our local administration to benefit from. In order to benefit from these resources, project preparation, management, implementation and sustainability are extremely valuable."
Emrah Baydemir, Deputy General Manager of the Bank for Provinces (İLBANK), noted that the UMT has made the Project and Financing Congress a routine and said, "We will discuss together how we can reach a better point by collaborating, working together, hand in hand, identifying problems and problem points." Explaining the purpose of the establishment of İLBANK, Baydemir said, "If we realize these collaborations together, we will open liaison offices of our Bank in Brussels, Central Asia and Africa and carry out projects in a short period of time. We will bring the gains from there and distribute them to our municipalities as grants."
Following the speeches, Ertuğrul Şafak, Head of Project and Financing Department at UMT, made a presentation on the activities of the Union and his department in the field of international projects carried out by the Union.
During the Congress, many topics such as environment and climate change, grant opportunities for municipalities, agriculture and rural development, and cross-border cooperation programs etc. will be discussed.