By Yasemin Melez Biçer Coordinator of TİKA Bucharest
The Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency-TİKA, as the official development agency of the Republic of Turkey, established in 1992, operates around the world in line with Turkey’s policy of promoting prosperity in the neighbouring regions and beyond. Today, TİKA is operating in 170 countries through its 60 coordination offices on 5 continents.
The main aim of TİKA is to establish long-term projects between Turkey and its neighbours and partners, developing common projects tailored on the local needs.
Through joint projects undertaken in cooperation with local authorities, NGOs and academia, TİKA acts as a conduit of transmitting know-how, capacity building, methods for infrastructure development, and of preserving historical and cultural heritage. It carries out projects in a wide range of fields including health, education, finance, tourism, culture and restoration. With an experience of quarter century, it realized over 25.000 projects in 170 countries.
TİKA’s activities constitute an integral part of Turkey’s global development assistance. As an emerging donor country, Turkey’s share in the global humanitarian and development assistance displays a rising trend in recent years. In the Global Humanitarian Assistance Report of 2019, Turkey is placed as the biggest donor of Humanitarian Aid in 2018, given the technical and development assistance on a global scale, with a total amount of 8.39 billion dollars.
The TİKA Project Coordination Office in Bucharest was established in 2015 as part of the Turkish Embassy. Since then, over 120 projects in various fields, with active engagement and collaboration of official local partners were completed. Some of the ongoing and finalized projects by TİKA this year include:
- Renovation of the outpatient clinic department of Medgidia Hospital
- Medical equipping of the outpatient clinic department of Medgidia Hospital (ongoing)
- Renovation and equipping a shelter for foundling children in Constanta
- Establishment of an oral and dental health cabinet in cooperation with Constanta General Directorate for Social Assistance and Child Protection
- Professional scanning and storage systems (together with their software systems) supply to the National Library of Romania
- Medical equipment and anesthesia device supply for Pantelimon Orthopedic Surgery Department of Bucharest Sf. Pantelimon Emergency Clinic Hospital
- In cooperation with 5th Sector Municipality of Bucharest, “Clean Living – Hygiene Center” project
- Facilitating the organization of a conference on the 10th Anniversary of the Institute of Turcology and Central Asian Studies of Babeş – Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca
- Facilitating the organization of symposium on research of multiculturalism in Dobrogea in cooperation with ISACCL
- Renovation and equipping of 38 classrooms in the Dobrogea region
- Establishment of phonetic laboratories in 2 schools (in Bucharest and Constanta)
- Facilitating the organization of the Conference in Memoriam of Professor Kemal H. Karpat
- Over 10 exchange of experience, capacity building and exchange of experts programs between two countries, in areas such as media-tv, medical and linguistic
- Facilitating a field trip practice to Istanbul focused on ottoman period architecture for the students of University of Bucharest in cooperation with the Turkish Research Center
TİKA aims to strengthen this valuable cooperation and the ties established between two important strategic partners, Turkey and Romania, through the ongoing and future projects. We would like to take this occasion to thank all our Romanian partners for their support and cooperation so far.
