Turkic investment fund with $600 million in capital expands financing across six countries

The Turkic Investment Fund (TIF), with charter capital of 600 million dollars, is scaling up cross-border financing in six member states — Azerbaijan, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. The fund is headquartered in Istanbul; it is the first joint international financial institution of the Turkic world.

The fund was created under a mandate from the Council of Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) issued in November 2022. The founding agreement was signed in Ankara on 16 March 2023 and officially entered into force on 24 February 2024.

TIF's task is to develop economic cooperation, increase intra-regional trade and support sustainable development by connecting regional markets and widening access to capital. Investments are concentrated in six areas: infrastructure and connectivity (transport corridors, airports, regional market links); energy and the "green" transition (renewable energy, power grids, energy efficiency); SMEs and financial inclusion; technology and the digital economy (broadband networks, data centers, cross-border digital payments); trade facilitation and logistics (warehouses, cold chain, customs modernization); industrial production, agribusiness and tourism.

The fund operates through co-financing, syndicated lending and local financial intermediaries, assessing projects on financial viability and ESG impact. Among its recent commitments: an agreement with the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD) to establish a Sharia-compliant financing channel of up to 50 million dollars for businesses in five common member states; participation of up to 20 million dollars in a syndicated loan for Almaty airport organized by Bank of America — for reconstruction of the runway, the apron area, cargo capacity and operational resilience; co-financing with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) of a loan to KMF Bank (Kazakhstan) of up to 10 million dollars to expand lending to local SMEs; 10 million dollars for Şekerbank (Turkey) — TIF's first deal in the country, part of a five-year syndicated loan of 170 million dollars organized by FMO, with the fund's contribution directed to clients engaged in cross-border trade and joint projects with partners in other member states.

Supervision is exercised by a Board of Governors representing all six countries; it appoints the fund's president on a four-year rotational basis, and the president chairs the Board of Directors. Operational activity and project appraisal are handled by the CEO and executive management. Applications for financing from public and private project initiators in member states are accepted online: a project overview, the requested financing, the expected development effects, a business plan in PDF and the latest financial statements. Requests are sent to investment@turkicfund.org.