Competitiveness and Innovation
The European Union provides financial assistance to Türkiye in order to increase the competitiveness of the Turkish economy – thus supporting its convergence with the EU economy, and to reduce regional socio-economic disparities.
| IPA II period (2014-2020)* | IPA I period (2007 – 2013) | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitiveness and Innovation | € 260 M | € 480 M | € 740 M |
* Updated allocation as of September 2019
Mirroring the structural funds provided by the EU to its Member States, in Türkiye, the EU provides funding through seven-year multi-annual operational programmes under the Instrument for Pre-Accession assistance (IPA) in the field of competitiveness.
In the current period of IPA II (2014-2020), the EU implements the second seven-year operational programme called 'Competitiveness and Innovation Sector Operational Programme (CISOP)' and provides 260 million euros for fostering competitiveness.
This programme aims at developing an export-oriented, private sector-led competitive production structure by increasing productivity and accelerating industrialisation. More specifically, CISOP’s main strategy is to contribute to the transformation of the national manufacturing industry in order to help it move up the value chains. The strategic choice of the CISOP is to concentrate on the “manufacturing industry” with the overarching objective to improve total factor productivity (TFP) in Türkiye, and to reduce Türkiye’s current account deficit.
To achieve this goal, the programme concentrates on SMEs operating in the manufacturing sector, tourism, creative industries, social innovation, research and development, technology transfer and commercialisation.
CISOP comes as a continuation of the IPA I period Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme (RCOP), which provided Türkiye with a funding of 480 million euros in the period 2007-2013, totalling an amount of approximately 740 million euros to date allocated to the development of Türkiye's competitiveness.
While in IPA I period, priority was given to projects originating from the 12 NUTS II regions, with Gross Value Added per capita below 75% of the national average, CISOP in IPA II period is open to the entire country.
