Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır spoke to answer the questions of the members of parliament at the end of the discussions held at the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) Planning and Budget Commission regarding the 2027 budget of his ministry and affiliated organizations; Minister Kacır also refuted the claims of opposition MPs in the Turkish Grand National Assembly that "Turkey is prematurely deindustrialized" by giving figures. Kacır, Turkey's manufacturing industry added value, which was 41 billion dollars in 2002; He stated that it increased to 259 billion dollars.
Stating that Turkey's production performance diverged strongly during the period when balances were disrupted in the world, major disruptions were experienced in supply chains, raw material crises came one after another, and pandemics and wars affected the global economy, Kacır gave examples from countries around the world and said: "When we compare today's production levels with January 2020, production in Italy is 6.4 percent lower, in France it is 3.7 percent lower, in Germany it is 13.2 percent lower, in Türkiye it is 27.5 percent higher. So, how did Turkey achieve this? Turkey achieved this thanks to more value-added production. Look, in this period, we increased our high-technology production by 87.5 percent and our medium-high technology production by 47.9 percent." “We did it.”
GOOD NEWS FOR INDUSTRIALISTS: Minister Kacır stated that along with the programs put into effect to accelerate new investments, practices that will support the durability of existing businesses have also been implemented. He said that in the Manufacturing Industry Financing Program, which offers a loan opportunity of 250 billion, they offer a 36-month loan opportunity with a maturity of 6 months, with a grace period of 6 months, with favorable conditions, to the manufacturing industry, and that they provide 12 points of financing support to businesses that maintain employment, thus preserving employment.
Minister Kacır; "In order to bring Türkiye together with new investments in high technology fields, we are implementing the Investment Committed Advance Loan Program together with our Central Bank. We increased the volume of this program from 500 billion liras to 750 billion liras this year. We added 310 high-tech and medium-high-tech products and 36 critical raw materials to 272 technology fields this year. In the investments realized in these areas, the investments exceed 1 billion liras. We offer financing opportunities with a two-year grace period and a ten-year maturity, where financing costs are reduced to 13 percent annually. With the program, we have paved the way for 85 projects exceeding 531 billion lira. This year, we took a new step, opening a new financing window for projects with an investment amount of over 100 million lira, especially for strategic projects, the progress of the investment, and the realization of the investment in the OIZ and industrial zone. "We provide cost-effective financing in order to accelerate investments by prioritizing criteria such as R&D activities. In this program, which we started last month, we issued priority financing documents for 58 projects with an investment size of 58 billion lira." he said.
KOSGEB SUPPORTS: One of our esteemed members of parliament reminded that KOSGEB existed before 2002 and that it was an institution operating since 1990. It is true, KOSGEB existed before the AK Party governments, but look, between 1990 and 2002, KOSGEB supported only 4,071 businesses with 2.1 billion lira at today's values. During our administration, we provided KOSGEB support of 362 billion lira, at today's values, to 1 million 400 thousand enterprises. In addition, we provided 592 billion lira of loan financing with favorable conditions, again at today's values. We provided KOSGEB support to 52,047 SMEs in the last year alone. We increased the financing amount provided to SMEs within the scope of KOSGEB supports, from 13.7 billion in 2024 to 34.7 billion in 2025, to 69.3 billion lira this year. Again, in the KOSGEB Strategic Plan, the number of entrepreneurs targeted to start a business in 2025 is 22 thousand, and we achieved this target as 22,479 by the end of 2025. We evaluated the results we received with the business start-up support of the Entrepreneur Support Program, in which we provided 491 million liras of support to 20 thousand businesses at current values in 2025, and in line with the feedback, we increased the support amount provided by only 1 gross minimum wage in the current practice to 8 gross minimum wage, taking into account market conditions. Within the scope of entrepreneurship support, we provided 1 billion 670 million liras of support to 6,339 businesses in the last year.
“ONLY 3 COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD CAN PRODUCE”
Kacır pointed out that the heart-lung device, which was developed by ASELSAN and will play a critical role in the field of health, was developed by ASELSAN and said;
"Look, there is a device right in front of me here, it is a heart-lung machine, that is, it is a high-tech medical device that takes over the functions of the heart and lungs in open heart surgeries where the heart is stopped and allows the blood to circulate and clean within the body. Who developed this device? Our national pride, ASELSAN, developed it. How many countries in the world produce it other than us? Only 3 countries can produce it. We have been coming here for years, unfortunately we have been subjected to the following criticism: 'You always talk about the defense industry. Technology is defense.' We have always emphasized this: In addition to the defense industry, we strive to accelerate advanced technology investments and increase R&D and innovation activities in all other fields, from health to energy, agriculture, food, transportation, but we would also like to remind that the defense industry is the most fertile technology field, and world history shows this. Now, defense industry companies, Türkiye's source of pride, are now implementing critical technology projects in areas such as health, energy, transportation, and thus making a tremendous contribution to the national technology move. contributes.”
Minister Kacır continued his statements as follows;
TOGG BECAME THE BEST-SELLING CAR IN ITS OWN SEGMENT THIS YEAR WITH A 31 PERCENT MARKET SHARE: Just three or four years ago, while we were implementing the TOGG project under the leadership of our President, unfortunately some people thought and stated that Togg vehicles were not produced in Türkiye, but were brought from Italy. Now, thank God, I see that we are all strongly supporting Togg together. This is what suits Turkey and our Parliament.
While Togg made 19 thousand 600 deliveries in 2023, 30 thousand deliveries in 2024, and 39 thousand deliveries in 2025, hopefully this year it will complete the year with nearly 60 thousand deliveries. We will launch a new model next year and hopefully we will move rapidly towards a capacity of one hundred thousand units. In its segment, Togg became the best-selling car this year with a 31 percent share. We offer exclusive support to Togg, and we are proud of it.
As you know, we offer many incentives to Togg that we have not offered to any other brand so far, including project-based government supports and SCT refunds on Togg vehicles, so that our national brand emerging from Turkey can continue on its way step by step. Of course, we still have a lot of work to do. Especially since we have representatives talking about the losses of previous years, let me say that cost-cutting measures were taken at Togg and new technological adaptations were made. Thanks to the steps taken especially in battery technologies, Togg is now rapidly moving towards profitability this year.
Of course, we gave this support to Togg, but we also attach importance to the investments of other automobile brands in Turkey. Turkey is an automotive country, 8 global brands are investing in Turkey and thank God, thanks to our close work with them, TOFAŞ, Hyundai, Ford, OYAK Renault have recently implemented tremendous investments, and they are implementing their new projects with an investment of over 157 billion lira within the scope of incentives. Again, hopefully, with Toyota's additional investments, this figure will exceed 200 billion lira. We are building an ecosystem. Together with Togg, we care about the transformation of the entire automotive industry. “You cannot build an ecosystem with a brand alone, you must mobilize your entire infrastructure in this field.”
DENIES THE OPPOSITION'S BYD CLAIMS
Minister Kacır; He also denied the allegations made by opposition MPs that BYD was being taxed. Kacır also reminded that he had given written answers to the questions previously asked about BYD; "The investment agreement we made with BYD was made completely in accordance with the legislation. As in every investment incentive, the responsibilities of the investor are clear. If investors do not fulfill their responsibilities, they are obliged to return the incentives they used during the investment period. In the case of this investment, the necessary guarantees regarding these repayments have been received by our Ministry. We hope that the investment within the scope of this agreement, which is currently in force, will be realized. We will continue these efforts. Just as we have seen investments from Japan, Korea and different countries of the world in this sector in the past. "If we have attracted investments from China to Türkiye, we will of course continue our efforts and work to attract investments from China to Türkiye in this sector, but everything we do is legal and correct."
ENDED WITH VOTING
Following Kacır's statements, the budget, final accounts and Court of Accounts reports of the Ministry of Industry and Technology and relevant institutions were put to vote and passed by the commission.
