DealsBrief
ADB approves €620 million loan for disaster-resilient hospitals in Türkiye
The sovereign loan funds nine hospitals and a mental health facility in quake-hit and high-risk provinces, with €182 million from the government.
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The Asian Development Bank has approved a €620 million loan to Türkiye's government to build disaster-resilient public hospitals in earthquake-affected and high-risk provinces, the bank said on 28 October. It put the loan at the equivalent of $700 million.
The government is adding €182 million, about $204 million, of counterpart financing. The loan goes to the government through the Ministry of Health, and by 2033 the hospitals are expected to serve nearly 300,000 inpatients a year, the bank said.
The Health Infrastructure Enhancement and Lifesaving Medical Advancements Sector Project will pay for nine secondary and tertiary hospitals, two of them research and training hospitals, and a specialised mental health facility. The designs include earthquake-resistant structures, backup power and water systems and emergency communications so that services continue during and after a disaster. The hospitals are to reach LEED Gold or an equivalent national green building certificate, and quality will be checked through accreditation by the Türkiye Health Care Quality and Accreditation Institute.
The bank's project data sheet classes it as a sovereign project funded from ordinary capital resources. It records that at least 136 hospitals were damaged in the 2023 earthquakes and about 15 per cent of primary healthcare facilities in the worst-affected districts became inoperable, and it estimates the damage to Ministry of Health hospitals at $3.1 billion, with a further $742 million of losses at primary healthcare facilities.
The approval came two days after the bank appointed Keiju Mitsuhashi as its first country director for Türkiye. He took up the post on 26 October and will oversee the setting up of an interim office in Ankara in December 2026, with a resident mission to open in 2027, the bank said. Mitsuhashi joined the bank in 2009 as an energy specialist in Central and West Asia and was deputy country director for Viet Nam.
"Hospitals are crucial when disasters strike, and ensuring they can continue providing essential care during and after emergencies can save lives," Mitsuhashi said in the loan release.
The loan adds to multilateral money aimed at the regions hit in 2023. The EBRD said on 23 October that it was lending İş Leasing up to €100 million, with a share for the earthquake regions. Elsewhere in its region this month, ADB approved a $302 million loan for Baku Metro's signalling.