ANKARA: Turkey’s target for its newly announced sovereign wealth fund is for it to manage $200 billion as soon as possible, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said on Aug. 26, as a public company has been established to run the process. “Our aim is to make this fund one which can control a $200-billion asset pool,” he said in an interview with broadcaster NTV, as quoted by Reuters.
Turkish lawmakers put forward legislation to create a sovereign wealth fund, which was intended to help boost annual growth over the next decade. A wealth management company called Turkey Assessment Management was established to run the process with an initial paid-in capital of 50 million Turkish Liras ($16 million) to be financed from the state privatization fund, as the related draft bill was approved and legalized as of Aug. 26.
The company will be responsible for establishing and running the related funds, ensuring the financial instrument diversity, enabling state-run assets to be part of the economy, securing foreign funds and contributing to large-scale investments, as published in the Official Gazette. The fund’s strategic aim was to generate annual growth of 1.5 percent over the next 10 years. In the initial stage, a specific percentage of public funds and revenues will be allocated to create the main basis of the wealth management fund. In the meantime, the fund will create its own resources to ease the burden of the banks in the finance sector.
