Ankara Industrial Zones Discuss Investment Challenges
Turkey's Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacır, met with the presidents of Ankara's Organized Industrial Zones (OSBs) to discuss investment and employment. The meeting focused on identifying challenges and exchanging ideas to foster economic growth. Key topics included strategies to attract new investment and create more job opportunities within the city's industrial sectors.
This high-level meeting aligns with Turkey's broader "National Technology Initiative," a strategy aiming to achieve a $100 billion valuation for its tech startups and triple high-tech exports to $30 billion by 2030. The plan includes establishing mega industrial parks and a Space Technopark to bolster domestic R&D in critical sectors like AI, nuclear energy, and defense. A key focus for modernizing Turkey's Organized Industrial Zones (OIZs) is sustainability, directly targeting climatetech opportunities. A joint project with the Islamic Development Bank and Ministry of Industry and Technology is underway to develop "Sustainable OIZs" by investing in green infrastructure, improved water management, and energy efficiency, in line with the country's 2053 net-zero emission target. A separate $300 million World Bank project also aims to enhance the efficiency and green infrastructure of these zones. Ankara is central to this strategy, hosting 12 OIZs, 6 technology development zones, and 18 R&D centers that link university research to industrial production. The government's 2026 budget proposal includes plans to significantly increase the number of firms operating in these tech zones, from 12,250 to 15,500 by 2028, fostering deeptech commercialization. Despite a global venture capital slowdown, Turkey's startup ecosystem has shown resilience, with deal count growing from 297 in 2023 to 331 in 2024. Total deal volume surged from $497 million to $2.6 billion in the same period, demonstrating a stark contrast to the declines seen in the US and EU. Seed-stage investments dominate the landscape, accounting for approximately 85% of all deals in 2024. However, a structural challenge persists in scaling companies, particularly in attracting later-stage foreign capital. Turkey's seed-to-early-stage conversion rate is approximately 13%, significantly lower than the nearly 50% rates in the UK, France, and Germany. This gap presents a critical area of focus for pre-seed to Series A investors. In 2024, fintech led in deal count, followed by biotech, artificial intelligence, SaaS, and healthtech. While AI startups accounted for one-quarter of all investment deals in 2025, they attracted a smaller portion of total funding compared to fintech and gaming, which captured 68% of all capital deployed. These investment discussions are set against a backdrop of aggressive monetary policy aimed at curbing inflation and stabilizing the economy to attract foreign direct investment. After raising the policy interest rate to 50% in March 2024, the Central Bank began cutting rates between December 2024 and March 2025 as investor confidence showed signs of improvement. To accelerate development in target sectors, the government launched the High-Tech Turkiye Investment Incentive Programme (HIT-30) in July 2024. This $30 billion initiative offers tax exemptions and subsidies to support companies in high-growth areas including electric vehicles, battery technology, chip manufacturing, and renewable energy.
