Çağlayan announced a TL 125 million ($68.5 million) subsidy fund on Monday that will be used to support exports, investments and jobs in the fields of education, informatics, filmmaking and health. According to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), the country’s tourism revenue was $23 billion in 2011, a year in which more than 36 million people visited Turkey, an increase from $20.8 billion a year earlier. Earnings from health tourism, however, were some $3 billion last year.
According to the minister, the government will also partially foot the bill for certain expenses of filmmakers and overseas offices of techno parks, tech companies and educational institutions. He said the subsidies are intended to bring down the country’s current account deficit (CAD) by strengthening its foreign currency revenue.
As part of the package, the state will pay up to 80 percent of the salaries for employees in techno centers opened overseas. The state will also pay as much as 60 percent of rental costs for these centers. Çağlayan said Turkey has set an initial target of a $1 billion share of the $50 billion global computer gaming industry, and that the government will compensate commission expenditures of each software game application by as much as $50,000. The minister also said the state will provide financial support for the advertising costs of software companies on such popular search engines as Google, Yahoo, Baidu and Yandex.
Newly established software companies will be eligible to receive as much as $200,000 in support from the state. “We are expecting to increase Turkey’s software products [including a wide range of products from video games to compute security systems] to $1 billion in 2013 from currently $250 million. This figure should reach $10 billion in 2023,” Çağlayan added.
Making mention of incentives for investments in the education industry, Çağlayan said educational institutions that open offices overseas will receive annual financial support of $200,000 from the state. The state will also cover 70 percent of expenditure for educational institutions participating in fairs abroad. These institutions will also be eligible to receive as much as $300,000 annually from the state for promotional campaigns -- a brand new incentive, Çağlayan noted. Fifty percent of revenue of hospitals and schools for services provided to non-Turkish individuals will be exempt from income tax, Çağlayan said, and the state is able to fully exempt institutions from such taxation.
Turkey received 25,000 foreign students in 2011. Çağlayan says the government expects this number reach 100,000 by 2023. “This could help Turkey attract as much as $2 billion in foreign student services.”
Economic sanctions against Damascus on table
Regarding ongoing tensions with southern neighbor Syria, Çağlayan said he would discuss whether Turkey could implement new economic sanctions against Damascus during Monday’s Cabinet meeting. “We [the Ministry of the Economy] have prepared a report on economic ties with Syria. I will present this to Cabinet members should they bring a possible economic sanction step to the table.” Emphasizing that the government had “studied all scenarios” regarding possible responses to Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Çağlayan said he did not expect a military confrontation with Syria, despite negative developments. “I have no such concern; we discuss all measures in detail,” he explained.
Already strained ties between Ankara and Damascus worsened on Friday when Syrian forces shot down a Turkish military plane. The incident immediately raised the possbility of a military clash with Syria. Both sides; however, have tried to ease tensions over the incident, with Syria stating on Monday that it has “no hostility” toward Turkey, while Ankara called a NATO meeting on Tuesday to discuss the incident.
NATO allies are able to request such consultations if they feel their territorial integrity or security are threatened. Meanwhile, Turkey’s Energy Minister Taner Yıldız suggested Turkey would cut electricity supplies to Syria. Turkey provides Syria with around 10 percent of its annual power supply. Yıldız said a decision on the issue will be announced on Tuesday. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to address Parliament on Tuesday to reveal what measures Turkey will take against Damascus for the downing of the plane.
Mutual trade volume between Turkey and Syria stands at $249 million in the first half of this year. This figure was $823 million for the entire 2011.
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Source : todayszaman.com
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