Posted
17 Jul 2019
By
Taylan Akay
Reading time
2 minute(s)

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Turkey’s 11th Parliamentary Development Plan was adopted in July 2019. The development plan was prepared by focusing on competitive production and efficiency. In the plan where the sectoral prioritization approach emerged to reduce the economy's dependence on exports in technology and to achieve structural transformation in the manufacturing industry, the industry's added value, employment and technology levels, the plan is involved in comparing and analyzing the intersectoral and back links, and it was determined to lead to a faster growth by gaining competitive strength in the medium and long term in Turkish economy.

In this context, the production industry exports at the end of the plan period (2023) was estimated to increase from 158.8 billion USD to 210 billion USD.

The plan aimed to increase the share of high-tech sectors from 3.5 per cent to 5.5 per cent in exports and the share of medium-high-tech sectors in exports from 36.4 per cent to 44.2 per cent. To support the structure, KOSGEB's share of the support of the manufacturing industry increased from 48 per cent to 75 per cent and the Turkish Eximbank support of export rate from 26 per cent to 29 per cent. Similarly, the development plan was prepared to increase the investment banking loan volume from 8.1 per cent to 12 percent.

The plan, which is determined to accelerate industrialization, will also increase its share in the manufacturing industry from 35 per cent to 43.4 per cent, with the aim of developing domestic production and technological capabilities.

The export of the defence industry in Turkey, which was 1.6 billion USD in 2013, increased to 2.2 billion USD in 2018. At the end of the Plan period, exports are aimed at 10 billion USD. The defence industry is of great importance in the development of technological capabilities and the development of new products of civilian use, increasing the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry. Many pioneering technologies that are widely used in our daily lives, such as Internet, GPS, voice recognition, are rooted in the defense industry. The defense industry is pioneering in the development of many spoken artificial intelligence and robotics technologies in Turkish economy. The defence industry has a privileged position in international agreements on public purchases and public support. This plan encourages the use of developments in the defence industry in the civilian sphere.

The investment of R&D expenditures as a proportion of national income rate during the development plan period is aimed to increase from 0.96 per cent to 1.8 per cent. The development plan, aiming to increase the private sector share from 56.9 per cent to 67 per cent in the capital investments and support of the humanities expenses, has doubled the number of full-time R& D personnel in five years, from 154,000 to 300,000 in Turkey.