Türkiye ramping up efforts to become high-tech center

ANKARA

With a newly unveiled incentives program, Türkiye is doubling down on its efforts to turn the country into a center for high-tech products.

The $30 billion plan, dubbed High Technology Intensive Program (HIT-30), will provide supports to encourage investments in electric vehicles, batteries, chip production, R&D and solar and wind energy.

Providing details of HIT-30, Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır said: “We aim to produce 65 nanometer and below chips in Türkiye.”

“With $5 billion to be allocated for the production of those chips, we will ensure that the chips we need in areas such as automotive, white goods, electronics, defense and aviation are produced in Türkiye.”

Those incentives will increase the country’s capabilities to export those chips, he added

Last week, Arçelik already rolled out a two-year project to produce homegrown chips with the chipmaker YongaTek.

With the financing provided by the Industry and Technology Ministry, Arçelik’s upcoming homegrown chips will be used in the appliances maker’s household appliances and other electronic kitchen items.

HIT-30 will also provide incentives to encourage the production of electric vehicle batteries, Kacır explained.

“Our goal is to create 80 gigawatt-hours of battery production capacity in Türkiye with up to $4.5 billion of support,” the minister said.

The government will offer incentives including grants of up to $6,000 per megawatt-hour until 2030 for the development and production of batteries in Türkiye, which are critical needs in the electric vehicles and energy storage sectors, he added.

“Türkiye will become a high technology production base,” Kacır said.

Under HIT-20, another $5 billion will be offered to carmakers to build EVs in Türkiye, with a goal of producing at least 1 million vehicles a year.

The program also includes subsidies totaling $4.2 billion to develop solar and wind energy technologies. Of this amount, $2.5 billion will go to solar energy investments and $1.7 billion will be allocated to wind power investments.

The government will provide grant support of up to $8,000 per megawatt for cell investments for the establishment of a capacity of 15 gigawatts in solar energy.

In wind energy, HIT-30 aims to support the manufacturing of critical components and products such as offshore turbines and to build a domestic wind energy brand.

The program also aims to lure major technology companies to open research and development centers in Türkiye. For five years, the program will cover half of the personnel expenses of the new centers to be established in Türkiye by the world's top 1,000 companies.