Government unveils new action plan for southeastern region

ŞANLIURFA

The government has unveiled a new Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) Action Plan covering the period of 2024-2028 to support the region’s economic development through large scale investments.

“The new GAP action plan aims to complete irrigation investments, expand productive and smart agricultural practices, achieve tourism-oriented growth and, most importantly, create an attractive investment environment for the private sector with 198 projects,” Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said.

Some 496 billion Turkish Liras will be allocated for those nearly 200 projects, according to the vice president.

With the new Action Plan, the region will become the center of sustainable development with smart agriculture, high-tech production and innovative incentive programs, Yılmaz said, adding that public investments under the GAP between 2003 and 2024 exceeded 1 trillion liras.

To date, 18 dams and 14 hydropower plants have been built in the region as part of the GAP, according to Yılmaz.

Yılmaz and several top government officials, including Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, Agriculture Minister İbrahim Yumaklı, Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and Industry Minister Fatih Kacır attended the consultation meeting on the new GAP plan held in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa.

The new GAP Action Plan will create more than 570,000 jobs, said Kacır.

They have identified projects that will fully utilize the potential of cities under the “National Strategy for Regional Development,” he noted.

“We will rapidly undertake investments that will strengthen the economies of 9 cities in this region,” the minister said.

Some 214 billion liras will be allocated to irrigation projects and 475,000 hectares of land will open to irrigation, he furthered.

In addition to promoting the cities more, they will also strengthen those cities’ logistics infrastructure and connections to ensure that they become prominent tourism destinations, Kacır noted.

The government will invest 16 billion liras under the “Transformation Program in Labor-Intensive Industrial Sectors,” according to the minister.

Another 19 billion liras will be allocated to the Tourism-Oriented Economic Growth Program, which will support green transformation in tourist destinations, he said.

Under those investments, the bed capacity in the region is expected to increase to nearly 99,000 by the end of 2028, Kacır added.

“With the implementation of all those planned projects, we anticipate an additional 49,000 liras of increase in per capita annual income in the region,” he said.