2.13. Social Responsibility Activities, Donations and Financial Support

In addition to performing the duties and responsibilities entrusted to it by the CBRT Law, the CBRT also engages in social responsibility activities and contributes to academic studies and various fields of interest by providing donations and financial support. In the scope of the Financial Support Program for Academic Studies, which has been in place since 2006, the Bank has continued to provide support for conferences on economics and finance as well as for other academic and policy-making studies in these fields both at national and international levels. Among the academic programs that applied for support, the Bank provided financial support for 33 academic programs in 2015.

The CBRT granted the 6th Research Awards in 2015 to support academic studies in the fields of the Turkish economy, EMEs and/or central banking and to make these studies accessible to a larger audience. At the end of the evaluation process, one candidate was granted the first-place award, one candidate was awarded second place and two candidates received third-place awards, while two others were granted academic encouragement awards.

The Central Bank Derince Anatolian High School in İzmit was founded by the contributions of the CBRT and the Bank of Greece in the aftermath of the 17 August 1999 earthquake in Turkey. The school, which started education in 2001-2002, had its 14th graduation ceremony in May 2015, where the highest ranking three graduates were awarded with plaques, money awards and various presents. By 2015, 80 high school graduates received scholarships from the Bank for university education. Moreover, the CBRT donated laptops and personal computers to the school.

The CBRT made a donation to the Foundation for the Training and Protection of Mentally Handicapped Children (ZİÇEV) to implement its social responsibility project called “The Comprehension of the Turkish Lira Symbol, Money Recognition, Spending, Budget Preparation”.

The former service building of the Bursa Branch was donated to the Ministry of Finance Directorate General of National Property to be granted to the Bursa Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, so that it can be utilised as a “Provincial Public Library and Cultural Site”.

Miscellaneous office equipment such as office tables, chairs, coffee tables, shelving units, cabinets and electronic devices such as computers, telephones, printers that had been out of use at the CBRT were distributed to educational institutions, which were in need of such items.