Resource information
Turkey is an upper-middle income country
with a population of 73 million. It has a diversified
economy with a strategic geographical position, located on
the southeastern side of Europe and southwestern side of
Asia. Continued economic growth, combined with increases in
the urban population, will place increasing demands on
Turkey's transport infrastructure. High middle income
countries such as Turkey typically see very rapid increases
in demand for transport services for several decades.
Consequently public expenditures on transport sector have
increased substantially in Turkey in recent years. Public
expenditures on transport have almost doubled from 1.06
percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2004 to 1.92
percent in 2010, and the transport sector accounted for the
bulk of the increase in total public investments over this
period. Turkey's transport sector has been growing both
in terms of its size and the quality of the network, and
currently compares well with similar middle income
countries. However, Turkey's infrastructure quality
lags behind the levels of EU countries, particularly in the
railroads and ports sector. The need for transport
infrastructure improvements is also reinforced by the
results of business surveys.
