KILCA: WE CARRY OUR SERVICES TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Karatay Municipality exerts great efforts in order to increase the quality of its investments in the county, to represent Karatay in the international arena, and to obtain grants and additional resources of funding from EU funds, the World Bank, the UN and many other international organizations. Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, who stated that they changed the appearance of the county with the resources and grants he received from MEVKA, KOP, ministries, and many other public institutions and organizations, as well as international organizations, said followings: “ We aim to both provide resources for our municipality and raise the quality of our services and projects to the level of international standards. "

Municipal Council of Karatay decided in June that the unit, which has been working as the “EU Project Office” for approximately 1.5 years, should continue its activities as the Foreign Relations Directorate.

The abovementioned unit having a technical staff experienced in grant/funding projects and procedures and contract legislation, especially EU funds, is Karatay's window to the world.

In this context, Karatay Municipality could be able to obtain grants and additional funding supports from the World Bank, UN and MEVKA, KOP, ministries, and many other institutions, especially EU funds, in order to carry out the projects it has prepared for Karatay, from culture to education, from tourism to health and social areas.

WE CARRY OUR SERVICES TO INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay, emphasized that he believed that the Directorate of Foreign Relations would bring a more professional perspective to the relations established by the municipality in the international arena and stated that his unit led to the institutional structure of Karatay Municipality and projects with new resources.

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor, reminded that the unit has been working as the EU Project Office for 1.5 years and noted that the office has accomplished successful works during this period. Hasan Kılca said, “Our office has provided our municipality with a significant amount of grants from many national and international institutions and organizations for the projects which we have prepared as a municipality. We also presented our project to the World Bank in order to receive a grant of four Million Dollars within the scope of the World Bank Risk Sharing Mechanism. In this project we presented, we left many projects behind and managed to get to the final stage. We expect a positive result in this regard as well. We also have developed a project with Konya Metropolitan Municipality and the fourth Regional Directorate of State Hydraulic Works so that our farmers in our district can access to more irrigation water. Our team presented a project to the KOP Regional Development Administration for the concretization of the soil irrigation canals in our county with a budget of approximately 38 million Turkish Liras. Studies required in this regard continues. Some of our projects prepared by our EU Project Office in cooperation with our other directorates received awards from different institutions. Our teammates gave their presentations within the scope of the  "Zero Waste Project"  and the Local Administrations Reform Project (Phase III) carried out by the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and the UN Development Program (UNDP). All these successful works will continue to be carried out much more actively, effectively, and more successfully from now on.” All these successful works of ours will continue to be carried out much more actively, more effectively, and more successfully from now on.”

WE HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE TOP THREE MUNICIPALITIES IN TURKEY THAT STARTED TO PREPARE THE " VOLUNTARY LOCAL REVIEWS" IN TURKEY.

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor of Karatay,  also stated that they, the Karatay Municipality,  aim to expand from local to global under the title of "Sustainable Cities and Communities", which is one of the 17 goals within the framework of the "2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development “by the United Nations (UN).

Hasan Kılca, the Mayor,  Stated that they provided significant studies and training in this context, and continued his words as follows: “As is known, 17 sustainable development goals have been determined by the United Nations (UN) within the framework of the '2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development'. “Sustainable Cities and Living Spaces”, one of these 17 sustainable development goals, aims to expand from local to global. Our country has also prepared a VNR (Voluntary Local Reviews) by our Presidency in order to show how far we have achieved these goals. With the VLR (Voluntary Local Reviews), which is being prepared in cooperation with the Union of Municipalities of Turkey and UCLG MEWA, We, the Karatay municipality, have become one of the three municipalities that started to prepare this report for the first time in Turkey. With this and many more works and projects, we hope to provide our services at international standards and to carry the representation and promotion of our municipality to a higher level.”

WE WILL CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN OUR TIES WITH OUR HEARTLAND

Hasan Kılca emphasized that Karatay Municipality maintains relations with many municipalities abroad, in addition to international organizations in our country and abroad, with “Sister City” protocols.

Mayor Hasan Kılca concluded his words as follows: “Until now, our Municipality has signed a sister city protocol with the cities of Gorazde in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Balkh in Afghanistan, Kenitra in Morocco, Novi Pazar in Serbia and Gevaş district of Van in our country. In recent weeks, we, the Karatay Municipality, signed our sister city protocol with Novi Grad Municipality in Sarajevo, in the program of our Union of Turkish World Municipalities in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Within the scope of our program and within the scope of our programs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, we met with our Ambassador, Mr. Sadık Babür Girgin, and our Rector of the International University of Sarajevo, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldırım. We also held our TDBB Bosnia and Herzegovina Member Coordination Meeting, and we gave our strong message that 'we are always together with our brothers and sisters'. I hereby once again convey my regards to the ancient centres of our heartland. We will continue to develop our strong ties with sister cities and to sign valuable joint projects by increasing these protocols and collaborations.”