Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Medical Sectors Included in "Technology-Focused Industry Move Program"

Adil Pelister: "Support for the Priority Product List under our Chemical Sector Momentum Programme will greatly benefit our country's development" Adil Pelister, Chairman of the Board of İKMİB (Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association), issued a written assessment regarding the inclusion of the chemical, pharmaceutical and medical device sectors in the Technology-Driven Industry Momentum Programme following the amendment to Article 3 of the notification published in the Official Gazette on 27 February 2021 titled "Notification on Amendments to the Priority Product List Notification".

Pelister stated in his statement:

"We have long been calling for our chemical sector to be included in the support scope of the Ministry of Industry and Technology's Technology-Driven Industry Momentum Programme. In his speech in December, our President said 'Under the Technology-Driven Industry Momentum Programme, in the coming months we are launching new calls in high-technology sectors such as chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medicines, medical devices, transportation and electronics.' As İKMİB, we made efforts on this matter and after approximately 8 months of work, we prepared our 'Turkish Chemical Sector Investment Priority Products Report'. We shared this report with the Presidential Investment Office, our Ministry of Industry and Technology, our Ministry of Trade and relevant institutions and organizations. Similarly, we shared our recommendations regarding our chemical sector in the Eleventh Development Plan. Indeed, we are greatly pleased to receive the fruits of these efforts today.

The Technology-Driven Industry Momentum Programme now includes our sectors: Chemistry (NACE code 20), Pharmaceuticals (NACE code 21) and Manufacture of Medical and Dental Instruments and Supplies (NACE Code 3250), with product lists published in today's Official Gazette. The way has been opened for our members to submit projects related to products on the list.

Prioritizing domestic and national production, moving towards high value-added product manufacturing and scaling up our companies are of great importance for the future of our sector. We believe that new investments in our chemical sector, which is prioritized in the Technology-Driven Industry Momentum Programme, will increase. As the chemical sector, which is the second largest exporting sector of Turkey, we aim to increase the export value per kilogram through high value-added products and to reduce the current account deficit. In this context, as the Istanbul Chemical Substances and Products Exporters Association, particularly given that our chemical sector is 70 percent dependent on imports for raw materials, we conducted important work on the domestic production of raw materials needed by our sector in production. We prepared an important sectoral report that will curb imports in chemicals and play an effective role in reducing the current account deficit. Through our "Turkish Chemical Sector Investment Priority Products Report", we examined 157 most-imported product categories in chemicals and identified 103 strategic product areas awaiting a domestic production drive. We project that through domestic production of priority products that will strengthen Turkish chemical industry, we can prevent imports totaling USD 20.7 billion.

An increase in high-technology product investments in our sector means an increase in our exports. It means a reduction in our import dependency and a decrease in our current account deficit. Therefore, through strategic investments in priority products suitable for industrial investment, our sector's exports and export value per kilogram will increase further.

Thus, our sector's share in world chemical exports will also increase with high value-added chemical products. At the same time, as İKMİB, we have made considerable progress in our preparations and on the Chemistry Technology Center project, which we plan to implement in the shortest time after completing feasibility studies and which will support our chemical sector's R&D, innovation and high value-added product manufacturing through its digital library, reference laboratory and testing centers. We are working to implement this project with the support of our Istanbul Development Agency. We thank our President Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who enabled the inclusion of our chemistry, medical device and pharmaceutical sectors in the Ministry of Industry and Technology's Momentum programme and supported our sector, as well as our Minister of Industry and Technology Mr. Mustafa Varank and our Minister of Trade Ms. Ruhsar Pekcan. We wish it to be beneficial for our country and our sector and hope that investments are realized as soon as possible." he said.