2023 will be a crucial year for Turkey celebrating the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Turkish Republic. But not only that, Turkish governors have set high plans for this year, concentrating on several fields such as tourism, healthcare, transportation, energy, foreign policies and enhancing the Turkish economy overall. Turkey has been focusing on mega projects that will change turkey’s economy and it is investing more than 100 billion USD for this plan. All the goals of this plan will be achieved by the year 2023.
The AKP governing party has set many goals for to Turkey in order to rank in the top 10 economies of the world by 2023. Besides, being self-sufficient country in terms of production, textile and agricultures. Turkish governors are working on diverse innovative projects that focus on improving Turkey’s status among the well-developed countries.
Turkey’s governors focus on enhancing transportation links to ease the traffic and facilitate traveling in Istanbul where they built a Tunnel, made of three levels, under the water, with a breakthrough technology connecting the European side to the Asian side with car lanes and a metro line. This project is included in the 2023 transportation plan and it has been ongoing since 2017 and is a great achievement according to Turkish officials. The high-speed train network will also be enlarged to be the second largest after the Chinese train network. It offers an economic, fast, environment-friendly and comfortable transportation opportunity in Istanbul. On a daily basis, it will present to almost 7 million passengers an easier transportation opportunity.
The third new airport is the largest in the world with an investment of 10 billion euros, covering a space of 76,5 square kilometers and it is planned to reduce the effect of climate change using the most advanced green technologies. After the first phase that opened by the end of 2018, the airport is expected to serve almost 90 million passengers. This airport will be a new business center for Istanbul with all the projects planned to be built around it. All the phases of the new airport will be completed by 2023 with a capacity per year of almost 200 million travelers. This giant project will be employing more than 100,000 people.
Turkey welcomed more than 40 million foreign visitors in 2018. Statistics show that after the new law was passed by the Turkish government to grant investors the Turkish citizenship after they own properties with the value of up to 250.000 USD and with the opening of Istanbul New Airport, the number of tourists will double.
Tourism sector is one of the biggest targets of the vision plan and so far we can see quick results in this sector. With the same steps they are following they can easily achieve their target to have 50 million visitors per year and be the fifth most visited destination in the world. The target revenue in tourism sector of 50 billion USD will also have a big part in achieving the economy target.
Foreigners are not only traveling to Turkey for leisure. In the past years many travelers are visiting for health and skin care. Healthcare tourism has been contributing to the success of the Turkish economy in the past years. There are ongoing improvements supervised by the ministry of health in Turkey, promising international patients an excellent experience with great results.
The Kanal of Istanbul will be another big project that will contribute to Turkey’s economical achievement. It will be built in the European side of Istanbul and will connect the Marmara to the Black Sea transforming Istanbul into an island. The main purpose of the canal is to reduce congestion in the bosphorus. It will be a great contributor into easing transportation between Europe and Asia replacing the Bosphorus and reducing pollution. It will also have the capacity to 160 vessels per day.
Another point is to provide a more comfortable road for oil tankers.
Another mega project is third bosphorus bridge which will be named after Sultan Yavuz Sultan Selim bridge it will also connect Asia and Europe. This bridge is constructed as Brooklyn bridge in New York. It has the length of around 2000 m. This bridge will be the 8th longest bridge in the world.
