Turkey’s sovereign wealth fund has remained largely inactive in the three years since its creation, though it was launched with high expectations and handed over major public assets. Borrowing has been the fund’s only noteworthy activity thus far in what has amounted to an effort to rescue big construction companies amid the country’s economic crisis.

Last week, the fund announced it was taking over a stake worth nearly 1.7 billion Turkish liras (some $300 million) in the partially built Istanbul Finance Center, a sprawling project where construction has stalled amid financial snags. The move, which came shortly after the fund secured a treasury-guaranteed loan of 1 billion euros from foreign lenders, appears to justify predictions outlined in an Al-Monitor article more than two years ago. 

The fund, called officially the Turkey Wealth Fund, was established with much fanfare in August 2016 as a body attached to the now-defunct prime minister’s office. Its main objectives were described as “contributing to economic growth by ensuring value increase of key public assets, supporting the development of assets suitable for participation financing, actively deepening capital markets by supporting introduction of a variety of products, attracting further investments to Turkey and providing capital for new investments and … further developing strategically important industries and participating in large-scale investments.”

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the creation of the fund was a “belated” move, but had high hopes over its future. “The assets to be generated there will increase our strength, both nationally and internationally,” he said in November 2016.