Government Suports in Muğla

In General

There are financial supports and incentives provided by goverment institutions in many investment areas. Each government institution provides support to certain investment areas within its own bureaucratic operation. Some investment areas may also be outside the scope of support. At the same time, various conditions are requested for supports, and application processes are carried out by following certain methods. However, being able to benefit from the supports may require a certain amount of time, so goverment supports may not be very convenient for businesses that require urgent investments. If investors make their decision only on government supports, this may leads to them into the mistake.

The applying process of supports difficulty level are increasing with each passing time. That's why Directorate General of Development Agencies compile information on the website www.yatirimadestek.gov.tr. By using this platform, investors can access all of the information and understand them more easily. All support items are summarized in just only one page in order to understand the main frame of each support for different investment areas. For more detailed information about each supports, also there are so many documents related about these supports.

1) AGRICULTURAL SUPPORTS

What is understood from the word agricultural in the first place is that there are only farming activities. However, agricultural activities include; growing plants such as fruit, vegetables, medicinal aromatic plants, ornamental plants, fodder plants, fisheries and other aquaculture products, poultry, beekeeping, silkworm breeding, mushroom cultivation, greenhouse cultivation, fertilizer, as well as the processing or storage of these products It also covers packaging activities.

1. Agricultural Investment Supports

Investments can be supported with grants and loans with interest discounts. Interest-reduced loans are given by Ziraat Bankası A.Ş. or by Agricultural Credit Cooperatives.

Grant are supported wtih the programme named KKYDP (Rural Development Investment Support Program) carried out with the Rural Development and Organization Branches within the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. These supports consist of 50% grant, establishment of agricultural facilities (Support Program for Economic Investments Based on Agriculture), purchase of machinery and equipment for agricultural activities.

Another agricultural grant support is carried out by TKDK (Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution). These supports are often confused with KKYDP support. The main difference is that TKDK supports are only applied in 42 provinces. (Aydın and Denizli are within the scope of support, but Muğla is not within the scope of support.) but according to explanation of ministry, this support will generalized to all 81 provinces.

2. Agricultural Business Supports

Agricultural producers registered in the ÇKS (Farmer Registration System) or other registration systems established by the ministry are supported on a unit basis, based on the support amounts determined every year. These are the supports for biological control, diesel, fertilizer, soil analysis, certified seed-seedling-seedling use per decare. It consists of supporting some agricultural products per kg in some provinces and livestock supports per animal. Ecological Agriculture and Good Agricultural Practices supports are much higher than normal.

2) R&D, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGICAL INVESTMENT SUPPORTS

The situation in which investors may be mistaken in R&D and innovation supports is whether the work they will do includes R&D or innovation. R&D activities do not include activities for mass production of a product or service. Expenditures on production infrastructure are not considered as R&D expenditures. Therefore, R&D activities are only research and development studies to create prototypes for the new product. These usually consist of test and measuring activities. In addition, expenses such as the salaries of the scientists who will carry out the research, software and hardware necesseties to improve new designs, expenses for getting patent and utility model certificates, expenses to be made during trial production can be considered as R&D/innovation expenses.

The most important institution of R&D and innovation supports is TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey). While industrial companies doing R&D activities are supported by various programs, the 1512 Individual Young Entrepreneur Support Program provides the opportunity for entrepreneurs to realize their technological and innovation-oriented business ideas. Another support is provided by KOSGEB. In KOSGEB's R&D and Innovation supports. Investments for mass production of the prototype as a result of R&D and innovation activities can also be supported with different supports.

3) GOVERNMENT SUPPORTS FOR EXPORT BUSİNESS

Export supports are carried out by the Ministry of Commerce. In particular, companies in the IT, education, film and health tourism sectors are supported with high amounts of expenditures in order to carry out activities abroad. In addition, companies operating abroad, regardless of the sector,  are also supported. Expenditures such as opening a unit abroad, market research, market entry support, employment assistance, international fair participation, brand and promotion expenditures are among the items supported.

4) INVESTMENT INCENTIVES

Investment Incentives are applied in many investment areas. Different incentives are applied depending on the investment subject and the province. Investments that meet certain minimum conditions to be made in Türkiye can benefit from incentives with a wide range of instruments depending on the investment subject and investment province 6 regional classifications were made according to the development status of the provinces. The most developed provinces are in the 1st Region classification, while the least developed provinces are in the 6th Region classification. As can be understood, it is aimed to give more incentives to underdeveloped provinces. More detailed information about these incentives is available on the website below:

https://www.geka.gov.tr/en/page/mugla-investment-incentives

5) ENERGY SUPPORTS FOR INDUSTRIAL COMPANIES

The aim of this support is to support the projects of high energy consuming industrial companies that will increase energy efficiency.Companies that are committed to reducing their energy costs per product by 10% can be supported by a grant of 30%. Only industrial companies whose annual energy consumption is at least 500  tons of equivalent oil (this figure is approximately 6,000 megawatt-hours for electricity) can apply to this program.

In addition to this, KOSGEB can give grants for energy efficiency projects of SMEs.

6) PROMOTION, MARKETING, BRANDING SUPPORTS

KOSGEB supports the promotion, marketing and branding activities of all SMEs within the framework of the Business Development Support Program. With this program SMEs can benefit from domestic fair supports, international business trip supports, promotional supports, matching supports, consultancy supports, training supports. In addition to this, with the SME Development Support Program, grants can be given to the projects included in the project proposal calls.

The Ministry of Commerce supports the branding, promotion and marketing of Turkish products abroad.

7) ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUPPORTS

The most common entrepreneurship support is KOSGEB's Entrepreneurship Development Support Program. There is grant support for those who start a new business here, depending on the nature of the business they have established. In order to benefit from this support, free entrepreneurship courses organized in cooperation with KOSGEB must be completed. These courses can be followed on the KOSGEB corporate website. However, primary agricultural activities, education and health sectors are not among the sectors supported by KOSGEB.

8) EMPLOYMENT SUPPORTS

Within the scope of the On-the-Job Training Program of İŞKUR (Turkish Employment Agency), employers can employ additional personnel up to 10% of the current number of workers without paying any wage in workplaces with at least 2 employees. Employees' wages and insurance premiums are covered by İŞKUR for 320 actual days. Apart from this, enterprises are exempted from employer's share of insurance premiums between 6 months and 54 months, depending on the qualifications of the personnel they will employ in addition to the number of existing personnel through İŞKUR.

9) DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES SUPPORTS

Development Agencies operate in 26 regions covering the whole of Turkey, and each Agency creates financial support programs in line with the needs of its own region. The subject of financial support programs is according to the needs of the region. There may be different topics such as entrepreneurship, innovation, rural development, manufacturing industry, alternative tourism, environment, informatics and promotion. Support programs are announced in certain periods of the year with the project proposal call method, and the projects are gathered during this period and all of them are evaluated at the same time. The rate of support to the private sector is limited to 50%.  The point to be noted is that building-construction works are not considered as an eligible cost item in the projects of the private sector, in accordance with the Development Agencies legislation.

10) SUPPORTS FOR TOURISM

The Ministry of Commerce supports health tourism companies in significant amounts in order to earn foreign currency for patients coming from abroad. It provides support in various items such as foreign registrations, market research, quality and environmental certifications, promotion and marketing expenses, rents of units opened abroad, translation expenses, transportation expenses per patient, commissions given to agencies, participation expenses in international events.

Another support is the promotion and marketing activities of accommodation facilities, which have received foreign currency at least 750 thousand dollars annually, are supported by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism up to 150,000 dollars annually.

In order to benefit from the incentives provided by the tourism incentive law, it is sufficient to obtain an investment or business certificate from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. These incentives include allocations made for the use of real estates for tourism purposes, tourism loans, installments of the forest fund contribution, discounts in electricity, gas and water fees, communication facilities, employing foreign experts and personnel, facilities for the sale of alcoholic beverages, and operating on weekends and public holidays.