A Strategy and Action Plan for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises ("SME") has been issued for the 2015-2018 period ("Action Plan"). It was prepared by the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Organization and announced in Official Gazette number 29466 on 5 September 2015. The Action Plan sets goals for the period to increase the contribution of SMEs to national economic growth and international competitiveness.

The first SME Strategy and Action Plan was issued in 2003 to meet commitments arising from the EU membership ascension process. Industry strategy and action plans ensure national development towards clearly identified goals, in a coordinated and consistent manner.

The Action Plan envisages five strategic objectives and 15 specific actions, taking into account the key problems currently facing SMEs in the industrial, services and commercial sectors. The strategic objectives are to:

  1. Enhance SMEs' competitive capacity and support economic growth.
  2. Enhance SMEs' import capacity to be more in line with market levels.
  3. Consider SMEs during improvement of the business and investment environment.
  4. Improve SMEs' R&D and innovative capacity.
  5. Facilitate SMEs' access to finance.

Examples of specific actions determined to support the strategic objectives include:

  • Transforming unproductive electric motors used in industry.
  • Encouraging the aggregation of SMEs to increase capacity for regional competitiveness.
  • Preparing guides to support energy efficient technologies and good practice samples.
  • Increasing the number of women employees in SMEs.
  • Conducting a needs analysis study to protect the intellectual property rights of SME employees.
  • Spreading innovation culture among college students.
  • Supporting manufacturing industry SMEs through legislative arrangements.

Targets for the 2015-2018 period stated in the Action Plan include:

  • Increasing SME exports to US $150 billion.
  • Increasing the number of the exporter SMEs to 60,000.
  • Maintaining SMEs' commercial R&D expenses at 33%.
  • Employing 3 million new people within SMEs.

You can access the full Action Plan through this link (only available in Turkish).

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