Turkey should increase efficiency in manufacturing to accomplish 2023 goals, TÜSİAD leader

ISTANBUL

Muharrem Yılmaz, chairman of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD) speaks during the meeting in Istanbul. DHA Photo

Turkey needs to ramp up its competitive power through efficiency and increase the manufacturing of higher value-added goods to avoid the middle-income trap, the head of Turkey’s leading business organization has said.

“The manufacturing industry’s share in national income has plunged to 15 percent from 25 percent over the past 10 years; even this can seem like weakness,” Muharrem Yılmaz, chairman of the Turkish Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association (TÜSİAD), said during the launch of a report in Istanbul.

“Yes, it is a weakness … However, the real weakness is the loss of efficiency that has caused this retreat. Despite the remarkable loss in added value, employment in manufacturing remained relatively the same, meaning that we are producing less with more people,” he said.

Yılmaz, who has been stridently urging the government to introduce the necessary reforms to elevate the country to a more advanced level, said this situation would thwart Turkey’s competitive power.

“The aim of becoming one of world’s top 10 economies by 2023, is definitely not possible with the traditional growth understanding and our current efficiency level, it cannot be retained,” he said.
The Turkish government is trying to become one of top 10 economies of the world by raising the national income to $25,000 and exports to $500 billion.

However, Yılmaz sees a change of perspective crucial for achieving these objectives.
“This understanding of growth will not contribute to the quality of growth by keeping the rate at mediocre levels and locking us in the middle income trap,” he said.

“The countries that save their power in the manufacturing industry are the countries that preserve their efficiency, like Germany and [South] Korea,” he said. “Therefore, the factor of efficiency becomes more important as the road to become both sustainable and competitive is efficiency. New generation industries should focus on this factor.”