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Turkey
donates $3.5 mln for Africa
AFRICA-TURKEY SUMMIT TO BE HELD NEXT WEEK |
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ADDIS
ABABA(August 13,2008) -
The government of Turkey donated 3,500,000 USD as humanitarian
aid to African countries through the World Food Programme (WFP) to
contribute to the efforts of the international community to alleviate
worsening humanitarian situation in the continent, the Embassy here
said in a statement on Monday.
The mentioned amount of aid through the WFP is to be allocated to
respective African countries of Ethiopia and Sudan, 600,000 USD each,
Chad and Congo, 500,000 USD each, Kenya, 400,000 USD, Uganda, 300,000
USD, and Somalia, Madagascar and Malawi 200,000 USD each.
Turkish Ambassador Ali Riza Colak maintains that it is Turkey's humanitarian
approach and policy within its capacity to assist countries in emergency
calls. This donation is "one of the natural results of this policy",
he told The Daily Monitor by phone yesterday.
The embassy pointed out that increased humanitarian and development
assistance was becoming one of the defining features of the Turkish
economy adding that the country's international aid budget has been
steadily expanding over the recent years.
Meanwhile, a separate statement from the African Union (AU) said the
Africa-Turkey Cooperation Summit, hosted by Turkish President Abdullah
Gül, will be held in Istanbul on August 18-21, 2008.
The AU said invited guests will include UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon,
African Union (AU) Commission Chairperson Jean Ping, and 53 other
statesmen.
The policy of opening up to Africa which was initiated in 1998 aims
at completing the legal basis of Turkey's relations with African countries
in political, economic, commercial, military and cultural fields.
Within this framework, Turkey declared the year 2005 as the 'Year
of Africa'. Turkey has recently earmarked $15million for small scale
projects from African countries and announced an additional sum of
$50 million to be allocated for African countries on a project basis.
Turkey's humanitarian assistance to Africa since 2005 is now over
$12million. Turkey is currently providing personnel and financial
contribution to 6 of the existing 8 UN missions in Africa. Turkey's
financial contribution to UN peacekeeping operations in Africa is
over $7million. The total trade volume between Turkey and African
countries has amounted to $12.8billion in 2007. Turkey's target is
to reach a trade volume of $30billion by the end of 2010, according
to available information.
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