OSTİM Technical University, in collaboration with the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's Strategy and Budget Directorate, organized an Information Meeting on the 11th Development Plan covering the period 2019-2023. The meeting, held in the OSTİM Organized Industrial Zone Conference Hall, was attended by the OSTİM Board of Directors, cluster managers, academics, and representatives from the public sector, companies, and NGOs. The views expressed at the meeting will be forwarded to the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's Strategy and Budget Directorate.
Opening the meeting, OSTİM Technical University Rector Prof. Dr. Murat Yülek stated that Turkey has been making 5-year development plans since 1960, saying, “The world's countries can be officially divided into two groups: those that make plans and those that don't. A significant portion of the world's countries make plans. However, countries like South Korea, which say they don't make development plans, or the USA, which says they have never made a development plan, have numerous documents that, even if not called plans, are essentially plans or strategies. Because it is impossible for a state to take long-term steps without a plan, a program, and a strategy.”
Capacity has been created in Turkey for the preparation of the Development Plan.
Yülek noted that there are two elements in the 5-year plans, pointing out that the first element is macroeconomic balance.
Yülek continued as follows:
“This is a 5-year macroeconomic plan. We call it the general equilibrium model. What will growth be, what will inflation be, what will savings be? In terms of projections, what will public or private sector spending be, what will imports and exports be? Even other macroeconomic variables are included; from the exchange rate, which is indispensable, to various deflators and price indices – all of this is done, and a kind of roadmap emerges. Turkey, frankly, makes these plans; it has built up a very serious capacity over decades. But if you ask, ‘We make our plans, but how well do we achieve our macroeconomic and sectoral targets?’ We don't achieve them very well. Our performance, for example, when compared to South Korea, is not very good.”
Nevertheless, both the macroeconomic aspect and the sectoral aspect, which is the second element of the plan, are important in terms of how the state will operate, how it plans for the coming period, and how it thinks about us. Turkey has developed and implemented certain methods in the preparation of the Development Plan. A capacity has been built. Turkey prepares its development plans as follows: At least one year before the plan, the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey's Strategy and Budget Directorate begins preparatory work from a macroeconomic and sectoral perspective. Then, various special expert commissions are formed for the sake of participation. This year, 23 special expert commissions were formed. There are also working committees, mostly sector-based, that support the plan from different perspectives, such as the automotive sector, the machinery industry, and global trends, with the participation of the private sector and academia.
“It is desired that this marks the beginning of an industrial transformation period”
The 11th Development Plan included a special expert commission. I was the rapporteur for the Special Expert Commission on Industrial Policies. This commission worked with a group of over 50 people, including representatives from various Organized Industrial Zones, Chambers of Industry, and large private sector organizations across Turkey. As you know, we transitioned to the Presidential Government System. With this transition, a new cabinet was formed. This time, the government said, ‘The State Planning Organization (DPT), as the Ministry of Development, has prepared a plan, ready to be sent to Parliament. But let's not send it. There is a new cabinet and system. Besides, the Ministry of Development has become the Strategy and Budget Directorate under the Presidency. Let's revisit this.’
Our former Minister of Finance, Mr. Naci Ağbal, has become the Head of Strategy and Budget at the Presidency of the Republic of Turkey. Mr. Ağbal is closely involved with industrialization. He introduced a change; it was decided that the new plan would be structured around the core axis of industry and productivity. You can assume that OSTİM and our industrialists had an influence on this.
When we look at the plan, it doesn't have just one axis; it always follows 4-5 axes. Mr. Naci and the Strategy and Budget Presidency team want these next 5 years to be the beginning of an industrial transformation period. Therefore, industrial policies are an important part of this.”
“Much of what we’ve said is part of the plan”
Orhan Aydın, Chairman of the OSTİM Board of Directors and Chairman of the OSTİM Technical University Board of Trustees, expressed his satisfaction at seeing many of the points they emphasized in their meetings reflected in the plan. Aydın stated that during the planning process, he and Dr. İlhami Pektaş, Coordinator of the Anatolian Rail Transportation Systems Cluster (ARUS), contributed as board members to the discussions on communication technologies and rail systems. He then offered the following assessments:
“The issue of planning has been discussed in Turkey. We have had the opportunity to follow developments since the establishment of planning. We have always observed events. Turkey wanted to plan everything; we went from one extreme to the other. Then, a time came when they said, ‘Planning is unnecessary. Let them do it, let them pass.’ We switched to this model. This leads us to a place with no results. Then, with a little planning and a little freedom, we are now at what they call a ‘mixed economy.’ Now, the whole world, institutions, and managers know that no company, no institution can achieve development, progress, or improvement without producing a strategy and designing the future. Therefore, we value Turkey's 11th Development Plan. One of my warnings in these planning efforts was this: You write and create these plans; they are in the form of wishes and hopes, but what did we do, what did we not do, and why couldn't we do it? There is no institution that conducts a retrospective inquiry into this. There is no mechanism to question the institutions.”
There are some positive developments in the 11th Development Plan in this regard. I believe that the OSTİM management, cluster managers, coordinators, and all of us as OSTİM have contributed to this plan. I think all the sentences in the plan are familiar, because we have expressed them on every platform. It is pleasing for all of us that this has turned into a plan. Therefore, I thank everyone who contributed.
“Support for cluster collaborations is invaluable”
The fact that the plan focuses on increasing domestic production and accelerating industrialization, particularly in the priority sectors identified in the manufacturing industry; that the plan's objectives are defined within a framework of a stable, export-oriented growth model where the industrial sector plays a dominant role; and that chemicals, pharmaceuticals-medical devices, machinery-electrical equipment, automotive, electronics, and rail system vehicles are identified as priority sectors are all topics that we at OSTİM are pursuing. Their inclusion in the Development Plan shows that we are on the right track.
OSTİM must have a presence in the Industrialization Executive Board, encompassing all of our clusters. Our institutions can bring the most accurate information from real-life situations and the field to that board.
Supporting cluster collaborations for SMEs is very valuable to us. It's truly significant that the concepts we've been advocating for years are reflected here. The integration of vocational training and higher education with the business world confirms the correctness of our decision regarding OSTİM Technical University. Practical training in vocational schools and high schools is also a concept we are pursuing.
This plan includes cluster headings. The policy of providing support through clusters has also become important here. We believe that this plan partially meets our expectations and requests. We thank those who prepared this plan. Hopefully, it will be a plan that can be monitored with an effective mechanism that has enforcement mechanisms, where the results are questioned, and where the question of 'Why wasn't it done?' is asked. That's what they envisioned. I hope that it will make a great contribution to our country, our region, and our companies.”
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