ANKARA CHAMBER OF INDUSTRY CHAIRMAN SEYİT ARDIÇ EVALUATED THE 2027-2029 MEDIUM-TERM PROGRAM ANNOUNCED BY VICE PRESIDENT CEVDET YILMAZ.
ACI CHAIRMAN SEYİT ARDIÇ:
“THE FOUNDATION OF SUSTAINABLE GROWTH IS THE PRODUCTION AND EXPORT CAPACITY OF INDUSTRY”
I hope that the 2027-2029 Medium-Term Program, announced by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and setting out the three-year roadmap for our economy, will be beneficial for our country and our nation.
During the preparation process of the MTP, we had the opportunity to participate in the consultation meeting chaired by Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz and to convey the expectations of our real sector, the problems faced by our industrialists in the field, and our solution proposals. We find it extremely valuable that the views of our business world were taken into account during the preparation process and that the priorities of our industry were reflected in the MTP. I would like to thank Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz for the importance he attaches to consultation and for the constructive dialogue he has established with the real sector.
The foundation of sustainable growth is the production and export capacity of industry. In this regard, we consider it highly valuable that growth is targeted to increase gradually from 3.3 percent to 5 percent throughout the program period, and that this path will be supported by policies that strengthen the production and export capacity of our manufacturing industry.
It is important that the Program addresses sustainable growth on the basis of improving human and physical infrastructure, accelerating green and digital transformation, strengthening the R&D and innovation ecosystem, and supporting high value-added transformation in industry. This holistic approach reflects the determination to move our country’s growth model toward a more productive, technology-intensive and export-oriented structure.
We consider the Manufacturing Industry Strengthening Program, one of the most important innovations of the MTP, extremely important in terms of preserving our production capacity, increasing our productivity and technology level, and strengthening the global competitiveness of our industry. We believe that this holistic approach, which covers financing, energy, qualified workforce, green and digital transformation, exports and public procurement, will make a significant contribution to helping our industry gain scale. The areas covered by the Program also largely overlap with the priorities and needs of our industrialists in the field.
The targets of reducing inflation to 9 percent, the current account deficit-to-GDP ratio to 1.6 percent, and the budget deficit to 2.8 percent by the end of the program period are important for macroeconomic stability. Making price and financial stability permanent is possible by increasing the supply capacity of the economy. Therefore, in the fight against inflation, it is of great importance to protect and strengthen industrial investments, working capital and the competitiveness of our exporters.
We also welcome the fact that industrial transformation, market access, trade diplomacy, export financing and supply chain resilience are addressed together within the scope of competitiveness in foreign trade. Export growth should not be limited to existing companies selling more; the number of exporting companies should increase, exports should spread across a broader base, and the share of high value-added products should rise.
We consider the objective of developing domestic capacity in critical technologies in the defense industry, health industries and other strategic sectors extremely important for our economic security. We believe that this approach will offer new investment and export opportunities for Ankara industry, which has a strong production and engineering know-how in the defense industry and advanced technology fields.
The way to achieve the MTP’s targets of 5 percent growth, 450 billion dollars in goods and services exports, and single-digit inflation by 2029 is through enabling industry to invest, preserving existing production capacity and increasing global competitiveness. During the implementation period of the Program, it is important that steps related to financing, energy, workforce and the investment environment are implemented simultaneously and decisively.
The success of the MTP will be evaluated by the extent to which the announced targets are reflected in industrial investments, production capacity, productivity growth, technological transformation and exports. As the Ankara Chamber of Industry, we are ready to contribute in cooperation with our relevant institutions during the process of transforming the Program’s targets into concrete implementation tools.