We will welcome 2023 with a very solid industrial and technology infrastructure.
Minister of Industry and Technology Varank: “With the steps we will take throughout the year, we will continue to extend these growth rates to the medium and long term. Turkey will meet 2023 with a very solid industrial and technology infrastructure.” said.
Minister of Industry and Technology Mustafa Varank, in his speech at the “National Technology, Strong Industry” Consultation and Evaluation Meeting organized in a hotel in the city center, conveyed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s greetings to the participants.
Pointing out that the people of Gümüşhane know Erdoğan’s love for Gümüşhane, Varank said that he accompanied him on visits to the city many times, but this was his first time as a minister.
Varank underlined that Gümüşhane has a special place for them and said, “Because you never left us alone during the 17-year period we spent to the fullest on the path of serving the nation. You stood behind your leader in all the elections held since 2002, and supported the AK Party every time.” You emerged as the first party. It is out of the question for us to leave you alone. Therefore, we do not have the mentality of knocking on doors just to ask for votes during election periods. We need to see Gümüşhane as much as we miss it and embrace the people of Gümüşhane. Hopefully, we will continue these meetings in the future. .” he said.
“We will walk the path to success with you”
Pointing out that they have mobilized all means as the Ministry so that “Turkey will grow under the leadership of investments”, Varank said, “Only in this way can we make our country one of the world’s leading powers in both technology development and competitive production. As you direct your resources to investments, Turkey will become stronger and Turkey will grow even further.” he said.
Varank pointed out that the economic outlook is improving day by day and made the following assessment:
“We have been on a growth trend since the third quarter of last year. Interest rates have been falling. Inflation has remained below the target. Confidence in the economy continues to increase. Domestic demand is reviving. We are breaking records in exports, so the external demand front is actually quite strong. Therefore, this year is a year in which economic growth has strengthened.” “We are on our way. We will continue to extend these growth rates to the medium and long term with the steps we will take throughout the year. Turkey will meet 2023 with a very solid industrial and technology infrastructure.”
Stating that they have ambitious yet very realistic goals, Varank said that they will walk the path to success together with valuable business people.
Varank pointed out that, as the Ministry, they have developed innovative policies for industrialists to embrace production more tightly, and stated that the Technology-Focused Industrial Move Program is one of them.
Stating that they have undertaken a unique task in the field of localization with this program, Varank continued his words as follows:
“I will briefly summarize what I mean. Look, in August 2018, we encountered many serious external shocks independent of our economic fundamentals. As a result, there was a serious upward fluctuation in exchange rates. The prices of everything imported from abroad also increased. This, in turn, caused a cost increase to our industrialists and producers. It had a serious impact. We said that Turkey can actually prevent this import. This is actually what our program called Move aims for. While creating the program, we measured our current capabilities in the industry and evaluated where we could make a leap. See, here is a program where we will support both the buyer and the seller at the same time. We created a model.”
Varank stated that those who applied to the program could access all the supports offered by the Ministry from a single window and said, “We went to the first call in the machinery sector and encountered a very intense demand. We made a call in only one sector, that is, the machinery sector, and a total of 5.3 billion lira investment applications were made. Now this “We are evaluating the applications, hopefully we will announce the results in April. We will also announce new applications in fields such as chemistry, medicine, medical devices, automotive, electronics and rail system vehicles in the first half of the year.” said.
Stating that he would like to see companies from Gümüşhane in this program, Varank said, “Our city is a strong city, especially in the mining and food sectors. Programs like this offer very good opportunities for those who want to invest in different sectors.” he said.
Minister Varank noted that another visionary program is related to the capital mechanisms they offer to businesses and said:
“For this purpose, we have established two new funds, one in the field of regional development and the other in the field of technology and innovation. Our stakeholder here is the Development Bank of Turkey, so we will transfer 750 million liras of resources to businesses that focus on technology, industry and innovation. Look, these funds will be partners with our investors and you It will also save you from paying interest to banks.
We have another convenience that we provide to you. KOSGEB, SME Financing Support Program. With this program, we will provide investment support to businesses for up to 18 months and financial support for up to 36 months. As you know, after the downward trend in loan interest rates, KOSGEB took this into consideration and updated its protocols with banks. “Currently, KOSGEB can cover all of the financing costs, so you can apply to KOSGEB whenever you want and with these programs, you will be able to get loans from banks without paying interest or dividends.”
Minister Varank reminded that Gümüşhane Chamber of Commerce and Industry President İsmail Akçay mentioned some technical difficulties in the application conditions in this process and said, “Maybe we, as KOSGEB, can make a program here and they can explain how the processes work. In fact, our processes are not very difficult, they all take place online. But we implement a program here.” said.
“We are ready to give as much support as we can.”
Varank said that he wanted to specifically touch upon a few issues specific to Gümüşhane in line with the requests conveyed to him.
Referring to the demands regarding the infrastructure support and expansion process of the organized industrial zone, Varank continued as follows:
“I hope we are ready to provide the support we can, I just made a phone call, I was not aware of the plan, hopefully the plan will be approved and will come here on Tuesday. We can act quickly in this. If you send us your applications in other areas, we can provide the support we can within the framework of budget possibilities. We can tell you that you are not benefiting from the incentives sufficiently. You have stated in the requests received. Look, we have encouraged fixed investment of 500 million liras in Gümüşhane in the last 7 years. Of course, I have to emphasize this here; we will take critical steps regarding our incentive system this year. We will make our incentives more flexible. In other words, our investors will be able to implement their projects. “They will be able to determine the support they need for themselves. This year, we will share the work we have done in this field with the public and our valued business people.”
Regarding the request to open a Turkish Standards Institute (TSE) representative office in Gümüşhane, Varank said, “For this reason, I met with my friends before coming. To date, TSE has carried out only 29 certification activities in the city. Regarding the periodic maintenance of measuring and weighing instruments, yes, it is true, starting from this year, we are the Ministry’s “We have transferred this responsibility to TSE, but we have taken all our precautions. We do not expect any problems, but we will evaluate this again with our friends and make our final decisions accordingly.” he said.
The name of teacher Martyr Necmettin will be kept alive in İŞGEM
Pointing out that they will officially open the Business Development Center, one of Gümüşhane’s biggest investments, right after this meeting, Varank noted that this investment of 8-8.5 million euros came to life thanks to the Ministry’s Competitive Sectors Program.
Varank stated that they wanted to name the place after the martyr teacher Necmettin Yılmaz and said, “Hopefully, we will name it this way. A young sapling of ours, grown from these lands and full of love for the homeland, was martyred by the terrorist organization PKK. We want to keep the cherished memory of our martyr alive in this center with his name.” ” he said.
“We can also deal with the legal entity regarding the small industrial site. If you apply to us after establishing the legal entity, we will provide the support we can there within the framework of our budget possibilities.” Using the expression, Varank continued his words as follows:
“You mentioned development agencies and regional development administrations here, of course we want to utilize these two institutions in the most efficient way because the potential of the local is very important, development starts from the local, if we can establish economic structures that will realize the potential of the local, this is also very important for the development of the country. I meet with my friends constantly. But from now on, we will look more carefully at the projects of Gümüşhane, including positive discrimination, and how we can activate the local potential in Gümüşhane. We will put this on our agenda more carefully.”
Varank asked the business people of Gümüşhane to contribute to the development of the city and said, “We know that Mr. Aydın Doğan has a large capital in terms of cash after selling the media recently. Therefore, if he can contribute to this city in a way that will meet the needs of this city and be a blessing to him in the future, of course it will be beneficial.” “I will deliver important projects for our city to him, and from there we will receive the support of our businessmen.” he said.
Minister Varank emphasized that he will talk to the relevant parties regarding the evaluation processes regarding KOSGEB and will do his best to shorten those periods.
“The trick to this is unity and solidarity”
Emphasizing that they did not tolerate any terrorist organization, Varank said:
“The terrorist state that is wanted to emerge on our borders
