Minister Kacır Unveils KOSGEB’s Growth and Globalization Support Programs

The Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacır, announced the launch of KOSGEB's two new support programs: the "Global Competitiveness Support Program" and the "Capacity Development Support Program." He stated, "With the Competitiveness Support Program, we are enabling our SMEs to develop innovative and competitive products and produce innovation-focused solutions. With the Capacity Development Support Program, we will accelerate our businesses' investments in scaling up."

Minister Kacır participated in the KOSGEB Growth and Globalization Support Promotion Program. He mentioned that KOSGEB, which provided support to 4 thousand businesses totaling 1.2 billion Turkish lira over 12 years until 2002, has transformed into a protector of SMEs and entrepreneurship, offering support to 1 million 350 thousand businesses amounting to 188 billion Turkish lira over 22 years.

SUPPORT FOR 57 THOUSAND BUSINESSES: "Last year, the amount of support we provided to 57 thousand businesses was 13.2 billion lira. We streamlined nearly 40 different KOSGEB programs into 4 main categories last year. We gathered our supports under the titles 'entrepreneurship, sustainability, scaling up, and global competitiveness,' which can flexibly meet the needs from the seed stage to globalization. In alignment with this, we increased the upper limit of the newly restructured Entrepreneur Support Program from 375 thousand lira to 2 million lira. Through our program, we provided 613 million lira in support to 17,880 entrepreneurs."

1,064 ENTREPRENEURIAL INITIATIVES: "Through the entrepreneurial selections held in our 81 cities, we decided to support 1,064 initiatives with 1.5 billion lira. Following the earthquake disaster we experienced, we swiftly implemented support programs through KOSGEB that will compensate for our businesses' losses, recover their workforce and production capacities, thus reintegrating them into the economy. Under the Post-Earthquake Revitalization Support Program for Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises, we will disburse 7.3 billion lira to 21 thousand businesses in 2024."

GREEN TRANSFORMATION: "We are also rapidly implementing steps that will enhance our SMEs' competitive advantage through high value-added production and allow them to integrate into internationally efficient production standards. Under the Green Industry Support Program, we provided 2.1 billion lira in support to the green transformation projects of 866 SMEs."

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: "In collaboration with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, we offer a financing support of 300 million euros for the digital transformation projects carried out by our SMEs. We know that our investments in SMEs will return as added value to our economy. As we strengthen the contributions of our SMEs to our economy and value chain, we will move one step closer to achieving our goals for the Century of Turkey."

TWO NEW SUPPORT PROGRAMS: "The two new support programs we have launched today are a valuable indication of this. With the 'Global Competitiveness Support Program,' we facilitate the development of innovative and competitive products and the production of innovation-focused solutions by our SMEs. Through this program, we provide a 20-point non-repayable interest/profit share support for financing with a limit of 50 million lira and an up to 36-month term to increase our SMEs’ effective utilization of new technologies in global markets."

2 BILLION LIRA CREDIT VOLUME: "The Technology-Oriented Industry Movement Program, which supports initiatives with successful export and R&D performance operating in medium-high or high technology fields, can benefit from this program regarding priority products supported under the Turcorn 100 Program."

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAM: "The capacity development investments of our SMEs are as crucial as their innovation capabilities in enhancing sustainable growth and competitive strength. In this context, we will accelerate the scaling-up investments of our businesses with another support program, the 'Capacity Development Support Program.'"

WIDE RANGE: "We are addressing a wide array of needs ranging from production to marketing and from human resources to certification for our SMEs in the manufacturing, telecommunications, computer programming, information service activities, and scientific research and development sectors."

CAPACITY EXPANSION INVESTMENTS: "Within this program, which will accelerate the capacity expansion investments of our SMEs, we will provide non-repayable interest/profit share support of up to 20 points for financing with a limit of 20 million lira and a term of up to 36 months. Our goal is to create a credit volume of 22 billion lira this year through these two programs."

COOPERATION: "We will conduct both of our support programs in cooperation with Ziraat Bank, Ziraat Participation Bank, Halk Bank, Vakıf Bank, and the Credit Guarantee Fund, as stipulated in the protocol we will sign today. Our banks will offer instruments to connect the financing support we have created with our SMEs. The Credit Guarantee Fund will also provide guarantees for our SMEs. We will continue to stand by our SMEs at all times."

PERMANENT WELL-BEING INCREASE: "While we steadily implement our price stability-focused economic program aimed at ensuring permanent well-being increase, we are also continuing to carry out various measures in coordination with all our institutions to prevent disruptions in production and exports. For instance, we have increased the capital of Türk Eximbank by 4.5 times to 55.3 billion lira over the past 18 months to facilitate exporters' access to financing."

STRONG CAPITAL: "With a strong capital structure, Eximbank has provided support totaling 48.5 billion dollars to exporters in 2024, which includes 24 billion dollars in loans and 24.5 billion dollars in insurance. Our Central Bank also raised the limit for daily rediscount credits, which were 300 million lira in May 2023, to 4 billion lira. Over the past year, it has disbursed rediscount credits totaling 573 billion lira."

COORDINATED TREND: "Additionally, to ensure the credit growth and composition align with the disinflation path, a significant change was implemented in the mandatory reserves based on credit growth. The monthly growth limit for Turkish lira commercial loans was differentiated to 2.5% for SME loans and 1.5% for other commercial loans."

ACCESS TO FINANCE: "Turkish lira loans provided to SMEs under sustainability, whether with KOSGEB support or from international development financing institutions, were exempted from our Central Bank's credit growth limit. In the coming period, we will be increasingly supportive of our SMEs and labor-intensive sectors that are facing difficulties in accessing finance."

EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION PROGRAM: "We are launching an Employment Protection Program this month through KOSGEB to preserve production and employment in the garment, textile, leather, and furniture sectors that provide employment for more than 1.2 million employees. We will provide support of up to 2,500 lira per employee to SMEs that maintain last year's workforce level in these sectors. As we clear the way for our SMEs, which are the locomotive of our country's development, we firmly believe they will make significant contributions to our vision of a strong and great Turkey."

Under the program, cooperation protocols were signed within the framework of the KOSGEB Growth and Globalization Support Program.