Ankara launches $95.5 mln development fund

ISTANBUL

Turkey’s leading development bank has created a development fund to allocate money to businesses for “technology production with high added value,” the treasury and finance minister said on Oct. 21. 

“The Development Fund, aiming to support regional development and fields of technology and innovation, has been put at the disposal of our entrepreneurs and investors,” Berat Albayrak said in a tweet.

“Let’s keep on producing and working!” he added, recalling the targets of the new three-year economic program announced on Sept. 29.

Turkey Development Fund, which has a total volume of 750 million Turkish Liras ($95.5 million), will have two sub-funds, according to a video shared by the minister.

The Regional Development Fund will focus on strategic sectors that underpin the Turkish economy’s sustainable growth, whereas the Technology and Innovation Fund will grant support to the progressing innovative businesses.

The activity area of the Development and Investment Bank of Turkey (TKYB), which will oversee the funds, was expanded with the addition of investment banking in 2018.

Last year, the bank moved its headquarters from the capital Ankara to the country’s main commercial and financial hub, Istanbul.

Additional regional, sectoral or stage-oriented sub-funds can be founded under the um-brella of the development fund, according to TKYB’s restructuring plans that were un-veiled last year.

Although the TKYB has been involved in cooperation with the World Bank and development banks of Germany, Japan and other countries since 1975, the new Turkey Development Fund will initially be backed by the Finance Ministry, TKYB CEO İbrahim Öztop told reporters in Istanbul on Nov. 5, 2019.

Separately, the World Bank approved a $250 million line of credit to TKYB in August, which will be available to commercial banks, leasing companies and factoring companies under a wholesale structure.

Other loans provided by the World Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank - 316 million euros and $300 million, respectively - in the first half of the year have been put into use to protect employment amid the pandemic.

TKYB’s assets rose 16 percent annually to 22 billion liras ($3.2 billion on June 30) in the second quarter. Its credit volume reached 17.1 billion liras, an increase of 13.2 percent between the end of 2019 and June 30.

Nearly 100,000 trademark applications

The Turkish Patent and Trademark Office (TurkPatent) received 99,800 trademark applications – nearly 90,000 of them were domestic – in the first three quarters of 2020, according to figures released on Oct. 20.

The number of trademark applications increased by 23.5 percent year on year in the January-September period, the TurkPatent data showed.

The office received 11,097 patent applications during this period, down by 1.5 percent compared to the first nine months of 2019.

Some 2,305 utility models and 28,399 design applications were received between January and September in which 98.5 percent of utility models and 87.5 percent of the design applications were domestic, according to data.

Last year, TurkPatent received 134,353 trademarks, 19,916 patents, 2,971 utility models, and 46,188 design applications.