New incentive system aims to encourage reverse migration: Minister

ISTANBUL

The government’s new investment incentives scheme is designed to accelerate reverse migration and to strengthen local development, Technology and Industry Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır has said.

“We want to spread industrialization across Anatolia more rapidly, and for this, we have prepared a national industrial zones master plan,” Kacır said in an interview with private broadcaster CNN Türk.

In the first phase, they are working on establishing 32 new industrial zones along a corridor stretching from the province of Samsun on the Black Sea coast to the southern provinces of Adana and Mersin, he added.

These planned industrial zones “have very distinctive features,” according to the minister.

They are ten times larger than the average size of our existing 368 organized industrial zones, he explained, adding that the aim is not just to establish industrial areas but to create mega industrial cities.

“These cities will include residential areas, and we will establish Industry and Technology schools across Anatolia,” Kacır said.

All the mega industrial cities they plan to establish along the Samsun- Adana-Mersin corridor will be connected to ports via rail systems, which will enable industrialists to sell products to global markets, according to Kacır.

He recalled that Türkiye is working together with Iraq, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates on a project, dubbed the Development Road, which connects Iraq’s port of Basra to Türkiye and then extends from Türkiye to Europe, while they will also focus on the Zangezur Corridor that connects Azerbaijan to Türkiye.

“All of these will be new sites we establish in the coming period. Each will serve as an attraction hub. We will strengthen them with the incentive system, providing stronger incentives and support for investors to accelerate investments in these areas, ensuring that our industry does not remain confined to the Marmara region,” he said.

 Incentives to support employment

The employment support to be provided under the incentive scheme is particularly significant, Kacır stressed.

“In cities with the lowest socio-economic development levels, the government commits to covering the employer's share of insurance premiums for employees for 14 years, he explained.

Additionally, for ten years, his ministry will cover the new employee's share of insurance premiums, according to Kacır.

“Therefore, our goal is both to accelerate reverse migration and to strengthen local development. When we achieve this, we will have realized comprehensive development from the country’s east to west, from the north to south,” Kacır said.

The number of robots working in Türkiye’s factories will be increased fivefold by 2030, the minister also noted.

“Our goal is to have 200,000 robots operating in Türkiye’s factories. Thus, in the coming period, we will benefit from digital transformation, automation, and artificial intelligence, leveraging the competitive advantage they provide,” he said.