Turkey has so far invested $80 billion (TL 1.08 trillion) through 257 public-private partnership (PPP) projects, according to a statement of the PPP Center of Excellence (CoE) Monday.

PPP CoE head Eyüp Vural Aydın told Anadolu Agency (AA) that these projects have been used effectively since the 1990s.

Aydın stated that the PPP projects pass completely to the state after a set timeframe and thus provide important resources.

“For example, the third bridge of Istanbul, Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, has been in operation for almost six years. Istanbul Airport has been in operation for three years and has an operational period of 25 years. All these projects are extremely important and will return to the state at the end of the day.”

Stating that one of the latest of these projects, the 1915 Çanakkale Bridge, is about to be completed and will be put into service soon, Aydın said it was completed in a short period of four years.

Aydın stated that PPP projects provide environmental, economic and time-saving advantages and that they can be completed quickly without expense for the public.

Aydın said, "We see that PPP projects in Turkey contribute to economic development, save time for citizens and increase the value of time in the country.”

Aydın noted that Turkey's PPP projects are shown as an example abroad and that most recently, senior bureaucrats from 42 countries from almost all over the world came to the Istanbul PPP Week, which they organized for the sixth time in December.

He said that they talked about successful projects such as Istanbul Airport, city hospitals, the Eurasia Tunnel and Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge.

Expressing that Central Asian countries have especially warmed up to Turkey's city hospital model, Aydın said that a hospital project was started in Azerbaijan last month and that Turkish companies will take the lead in it, while a hospital and an airport in Kazakhstan were built by Turkish companies.

He added that there will be good news regarding Kyrgyzstan very soon.

“Thanks to the experience of Turkish companies, they have the ability to undertake these projects in many different countries and regions all over the world,” he said.

Aydın stated that all of the current projects will be state-owned by 2040, noting that new investments can be facilitated with the budgets that will be obtained from the current projects./Daily Sabah