Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz announced the Medium-Term Program covering 2027-2029 at the Presidential Complex. Business representatives assessed the program’s targets for production, exports, investment, employment and the fight against inflation.
Emphasis on access to finance and exports
İstanbul Chamber of Commerce Chairman Şekib Avdagiç said concrete and lasting mechanisms to facilitate access to finance for businesses engaged in production and exports would contribute to the program’s targets. Avdagiç said the disinflation program should be implemented decisively and that the resulting space should gradually be converted into interest-rate normalization.
Turkish Exporters Assembly Chairman Mustafa Gültepe said the new program offered a more cautious framework that took global uncertainties and current economic conditions into account. Gültepe highlighted the need to preserve the manufacturing industry’s production and export capacity and strengthen financing and working-capital support.
Gültepe said the goods export target was projected at $292 billion for 2027, $302.5 billion for 2028 and $316 billion for 2029. He said the program aimed to raise total goods and services exports to $450 billion by the end of the period, adding that services exports were projected to reach approximately $134 billion.
Gültepe said net exports were projected to contribute zero percentage points to growth in 2027, 0.1 points in 2028 and 0.2 points in 2029. He said they expected measures in financing, costs, market access and competitiveness to increase the contribution of production and exports to growth.
Predictability and economic resilience
Foreign Economic Relations Board Chairman Nail Olpak said the program covering 2027-2029 set out the economy’s three-year roadmap and would guide the business community’s planning. Olpak said predictability was the foundation of investment and sustainable growth.
Olpak said growth based on productivity gains, high value-added production, strong exports and qualified employment would increase the economy’s resilience to external shocks. He said the working-capital needs of companies engaged in production and exports should be met, the maturity and cost conditions of investment loans should be improved, and support should be provided for transformation investments by small and medium-sized enterprises.
Olpak said he considered the “Economic Security and Resilience” heading, included in the program for the first time, important. He said the heading addressed energy and natural gas supply security, food supply security, agricultural resilience, domestic production in critical technologies, and family, social and physical resilience.
Agricultural and food policies
İstanbul Commodity Exchange Chairman Ali Kopuz welcomed the program’s approach, which aimed to strengthen price stability, growth, investment and exports. Kopuz said directing selective financing opportunities toward businesses that generate added value, invest, export and provide employment would increase production capacity and competitiveness.
Kopuz said agricultural and food policies played an important role in making price stability permanent. He welcomed the emphasis on water security and food supply security under the “Economic Security and Resilience” heading and said continuity and productivity gains in agricultural production should be among the priorities.
Kopuz said the agricultural census should be completed to lay the groundwork for planned production and that producers should be supported through crop-based incentives. He called for a greater role for high technology and artificial intelligence in agricultural development.
Industrial growth and transformation target
Ankara Chamber of Industry Chairman Seyit Ardıç said the expectations of the real sector and the problems faced by industrialists had been raised during the preparation of the program. Ardıç assessed the target of gradually increasing growth from 3.3% to 5% over the program period.
Ardıç said sustainable growth should be based on developing human and physical infrastructure, accelerating the green and digital transformation, strengthening the research and development and innovation ecosystem, and supporting high value-added industry.
Ardıç said the Manufacturing Industry Strengthening Program included in the plan was important for preserving production capacity, raising productivity and technology levels, and increasing the global competitiveness of industry. He welcomed the program’s integrated approach to financing, energy, a qualified workforce, the green and digital transformation, exports and public procurement.
Ardıç said industry needed to be able to invest, preserve production capacity and increase its competitiveness to achieve the targets of 5% growth, $450 billion in goods and services exports and single-digit inflation in 2029. He said the program’s success would be assessed by the extent to which its targets translated into industrial investment, productivity gains, technological transformation and exports.
Financing and the investment climate
Ankara Chamber of Commerce Chairman Gürsel Baran assessed the program’s approach, which prioritized strengthening macroeconomic stability, combating inflation and maintaining discipline in public finances. Baran said setting out a three-year roadmap was important for the business community’s ability to plan at a time when the impact of global uncertainties, geopolitical risks and developments in energy prices on the economy was increasing.
Baran said they welcomed the announcement of concrete mechanisms for access to finance in the program. He said credit channels should be directed more strongly toward production, investment and exports and that the working-capital needs of small and medium-sized enterprises should be taken into account. Baran said implementation of the targets and the reform timetable would be decisive in the next stage.
Call for support for women entrepreneurs
Gözde Diker, chairwoman of the executive board of the Entrepreneurial Businesswomen’s Association, said the program offered a roadmap for Türkiye’s economy at a time of rising global uncertainties and geopolitical risks. Diker welcomed the program’s consideration of the goals of combating inflation, sustainable growth, production, employment and exports together.
Diker said access to finance and markets needed to be facilitated so that women entrepreneurs could become a strong part of economic growth. She called for increasing women’s presence in technology, digitalization, the green transformation and exports.
