On 26 November 2023, the Regulation on the Strategic Priority and Technical Evaluation of Investment Projects, numbered 32381, has published in the Official Gazette, and it came into effect on the day of its publication. The Communiqué on Strategic Priority and Technical Evaluation of Investment Projects sets out the procedures and principles for the strategic priority and technical evaluation to be carried out by the Ministry of Industry and Technology of projects that aim to determine the eligibility criteria for benefiting from financial opportunities provided through intermediary banks.
The Communique on Strategic Priority and Technical Evaluation of Investment Projects (“Communiqué“) introduces a new regulation by the Ministry of Industry and Technology (“Ministry“), specifically addressing the scoring of particularly strategic priority projects and technology-oriented investment applications by the technical committee and determining the conditions for financing programs.
Notable headings outlined in the Communiqué as follows:
- Investors seeking financing from intermediary banks are required to initiate a financing application by first obtaining an assessment from Ministry.
- Within the scope of the Communiqué, investors can submit applications to the Ministry for the following projects:
- Projects benefiting from strategic and project-based investment incentives and supports within the Hamle Program,
- Projects involving the production of products listed in the Strategic Priority Product List or Technology Areas List,
- Projects aiming to invest in the development of technologies and the production of systems based on these technologies in the technology field.
- Prior to the funding application, the Ministry’s evaluation of the projects will be conducted through the electronic portal developed by the Ministry.
- For the evaluation of applications, the total investment amount of the projects, including R&D expenditures, must be at least 1 billion TRY.
- Interest support will not be provided to investors benefiting from the Financing Program.
- Applications for the Ministry’s assessment of investment projects, made prior to financing application, will be evaluated by the Technical Committee established with the approval of the Minister of Industry and Technology and including representatives from the Central Bank. The applicant investor will be notified of the evaluation results.
- The projects under evaluation will be scored by the Technical Committee based on the criteria outlined in the Investment Project Technology/Strategy Evaluation Form.
- The Technical Committee evaluation notification made by the Ministry shall not mean that the investor is entitled to financing and shall not put the organizer of the Financing Program under any obligation.
- The Ministry will announce under which Financing Program the strategic priority and technical assessment will be carried out, the sub-criteria for the assessment and other application conditions.
- In the event that the Financing Program is terminated, suspended or the limits allocated to the program are exhausted, applications will be closed as per the announcement.
- The Ministry may request relevant information from investors to review the results of the implementation.
- The Steering Committee will convene at least once a year to assess the process and outcomes of the implementation.
The full text of the Communique is available at this link. (Only available in Turkish).
