Kacır Unveils KOSGEB's Growth and Globalization Support Initiatives
The Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacır, announced the launch of two new support programs by KOSGEB: the “Global Competitiveness Support Program” and the “Capacity Development Support Program.” He stated, "With the Competitiveness Support Program, we enable our SMEs to develop innovative and competitive products and to produce innovation-focused solutions. We will accelerate the scale expansion investments of our businesses through the Capacity Development Support Program."
Minister Kacır attended the Promotion Program for KOSGEB’s Growth and Globalization Supports. He highlighted that KOSGEB, which provided support of 1.2 billion lira to a total of 4,000 enterprises over a span of 12 years until 2002, has transformed into an institution that has provided 188 billion lira in support to 1.35 million businesses in 22 years, serving as a patron for SMEs and entrepreneurship.
SUPPORT FOR 57,000 BUSINESSES: “Last year, we provided support of 13.2 billion lira to 57,000 businesses. We streamlined nearly 40 different programs of KOSGEB under 4 main headings last year. We have gathered our supports under the headings of ‘entrepreneurship, sustainability, scaling up, and global competitiveness,' which flexibly meet needs from the seed phase to globalization. In this direction, we have increased the upper limit of support for the restructured Entrepreneur Support Program from 375,000 lira to 2 million lira. Through our program, we provided 613 million lira in support to 17,880 entrepreneurs.”
1,064 INITIATIVES: “With the entrepreneurship selections we held in 81 cities, we decided to support 1,064 initiatives with 1.5 billion lira. Following the earthquake disaster we experienced, we quickly implemented our support programs through KOSGEB to compensate for the losses of our businesses, regain workforce and production capacities, and reintegrate them into the economy. Under the Post-Earthquake Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises Revitalization Support Program, we will provide 7.3 billion lira in support payments to 21,000 businesses in 2024.”
GREEN TRANSFORMATION: “We are also rapidly initiating steps that will increase the competitive advantage of our SMEs with high value-added production and will enable them to integrate with international standards of efficient production. Under the Green Industry Support Program, we provided 2.1 billion lira in support to 866 SMEs for their green transformation projects.”
DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION: “In cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, we are offering financial support of 300 million euros for the digital transformation projects that our SMEs will undertake. We know that our investments in SMEs will return to our economy as added value. As we strengthen the contributions of our SMEs in our economy and value chain, we will move one step closer to the goals of the Turkish Century.”
TWO NEW SUPPORT PROGRAMS: “The two new support programs we have launched today are a valuable indication of this. With the first of our support programs, the Global Competitiveness Support Program, we enable our SMEs to develop innovative and competitive products and create innovation-focused solutions. With the program that aims to increase the effectiveness of SMEs in global markets by using new technologies in the most efficient and successful way, we are providing a 20-point interest/profit share support with a repayment-free period of up to 36 months for financing up to 50 million lira.”
2 BILLION LIRA LOAN VOLUME: “Within the framework of the Technology-Oriented Industry Program, which operates in fields with medium-high or high technology and has successful export and R&D performance, our initiatives supported through the Turcorn 100 Program can benefit from this program.”
CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT SUPPORT PROGRAM: “The capacity development investments of our SMEs are as important as their innovation capabilities in the process of increasing sustainable growth and competitiveness. In this context, we will accelerate the scale expansion investments of our businesses through another support we have launched, the Capacity Development Support Program.”
WIDE RANGE: “We meet the needs of our SMEs operating in the manufacturing, telecommunications, computer programming, information service activities, and scientific research and development sectors in a wide range from production to marketing, human resources to certification.”
CAPACITY EXPANSION INVESTMENTS: “Under this program, which will accelerate the capacity expansion investments of our SMEs, we will provide a support of up to 20 million lira with a repayment-free interest/profit share support of up to 20 points for financing with a term of up to 36 months. Our goal is to create a loan volume of 22 billion lira this year under these two programs.”
COOPERATION: “In line with the protocol we will sign today, we will carry out both of our support programs in cooperation with Ziraat Bankası, Ziraat Katılım Bankası, Halk Bankası, Vakıf Bank, and the Credit Guarantee Fund. Our banks will provide instruments that will connect our financing support with our SMEs. The Credit Guarantee Fund will also provide guarantees to our SMEs. We will continue to stand by our SMEs at all times.”
PERMANENT INCREASE IN WELFARE: “While we steadfastly implement our price stability-focused economic program aimed at achieving a permanent increase in welfare, we continue to take various measures together with all our institutions to ensure that production and exports are not interrupted. For example, we have increased the capital of Türk Eximbank by 4.5 times in the last 18 months to facilitate access to finance for exporters, elevating it to 55.3 billion lira.”
STRONG CAPITAL: “With a strong capital structure, Eximbank provided a total of 48.5 billion dollars in support (24 billion dollars in loans and 24.5 billion dollars in insurance) to exporters in 2024. Our Central Bank also raised the limit for daily rediscount credits from 300 million lira in May 2023 to 4 billion lira. Last year, it provided 573 billion lira in rediscount credits.”
HARMONIOUS TREND: “Additionally, in the mandatory reserve application based on credit growth, which aims to ensure that the growth of credit and its composition are aligned with the disinflation path, an important change was made. The monthly growth limit for Turkish Lira commercial loans was differentiated, set at 2.5% for SME loans and 1.5% for other commercial loans.”
ACCESS TO FINANCE: “The Turkish Lira loans provided to SMEs with KOSGEB support or from international development financing institutions under sustainability will be exempted from the Central Bank's credit growth limit. In the upcoming period, we will be even more supportive of SMEs that are struggling to access finance and labor-intensive sectors.”
EMPLOYMENT PROTECTION PROGRAM: “To maintain production and employment in the clothing, textile, leather, and furniture sectors, which provide employment for over 1.2 million workers, we are launching the Employment Protection Program through KOSGEB this month. We will provide support of up to 2,500 lira per employee to SMEs that maintain last year's labor levels in these sectors. As we open the way for our SMEs, which are the locomotive of our country’s development, we firmly believe that they will make significant contributions to the vision of a large and strong Turkey.”
Protocols were signed under the KOSGEB Growth and Globalization Support Program in the program.