The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) announced that Turkey has the potential to become a center of Islamic banking in the world. IDB Deputy Chairman Zamir Iqbal said that Turkey has taken several initiatives in the field of Islamic banking making it an important player in this sector. According to Turkish media reports, Iqbal said Turkey has a unique geographical location close to Europe, enjoys a strong banking sector, and seeks to develop in many international markets. He also praised the positive initiatives carried out by Turkey in the field of Islamic banking. He added that Turkey is providing support to the World Bank in this area, especially after establishing the World Bank Global Center for Islamic Finance Development at Istanbul Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of the World Bank Group. He pointed out that the IDB will increase its support to Turkey, in a move aimed at providing more funding after the funded projects reached a total of 483. The Bank believes the Turkish economy is strong and has succeeded in resisting the difficult and surprising challenges. Growth in Turkey increased by 7.4 percent in 2017, ranking first in terms of growth among the G-20 countries. Turkish Minister of Customs and Trade Bulent Tufenkci pointed out that Turkeys economy grew three and a half times more than it was in 2002. The government aims to achieve economic growth during the post-parliamentary and presidential elections of June 24 until the year 2023. On Sunday, the minister pointed to the efforts of his ministry to conduct business transactions through a number of measures, such as preventing illegal competition, speeding customs procedures and transactions, and increasing exports. On the other hand, solar energy production in Turkey increased 175 percent to 2.8 million megawatts per hour in 2017. Solar panels installed increased power produced from 939 MW to 2.978 MW on annual basis, an increase of 217 percent, in general, according to data released by the Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority. The rate of solar energy production from total electricity production rose to 0.97 per cent in 2017. Thus, electricity generated from solar energy was the sixth largest power supplier after natural gas, coal, hydropower, wind, and geothermal energy. Wind power production rose to 17.9 million megawatts in 2017, according to Turkish Energy Market Regulatory Authority figures. In order to encourage the deployment of solar energy, Turkey launched a Renewable Energy Sources tender project for 1,000 megawatts of solar power in 2017, but in January 2018, the country decreased the number of such tenders to promote the installation of photovoltaic solar cells on the roofs of buildings. According to legislation amended by the Authority in January 2018, Turkish citizens are allowed to install solar panels with a maximum capacity of 10 kW. In addition, as part of its policy to diversify renewable energy sources, at a ceremony held in Ankara in December, Turkey launched its "Renewable Energy Sources" project which was the first unit made up entirely of locally manufactured panels in the country to produce solar energy.