The Turkish Government to Provide Special Incentives for Domestic Car Production

Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergün has said the government is considering giving special incentives for the production of Turkey’s first national car.

“I cannot talk about the details of this incentive since it is too early, however, we will be focusing on this project. The current legal framework is suitable to give certain incentives for a specific project,” Ergün told the Dünya daily on Thursday.

Earlier this year Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had expressed his ambitions to produce a “100 percent domestic” auto brand. The call was seen as an exciting in the Turkish automotive sector, which was able to break an all-time record in vehicle sales in 2010 approaching 730,000 units.

Ergün stated that the company producing the national automobile brand could be a consortium of both domestic and foreign producers, or it could be a single Turkish or foreign company.

“We are considering every option. A foreign car brand could also come to our country to produce a Turkish car brand. However, we need to underline that when we talk about a ‘national brand’ we do not mean that every single part of this car should be produced in Turkey. This is also not the case around the world. The automobile sector in other countries is mixed,” Ergün said. “We refer to a car brand in which most parts are Turkish.”

10 June 2011
SOURCE: TODAY’S ZAMAN