“The Competitiveness of the Industrial Sector Decreased by 8 Ranks in 3 Years” Speaking at a symposium organized by the Competition Authority, TEPAV Director Güven Sak said that Turkey, facing a considerable drop in competitiveness, needs an industrial strategy with a special focus on this issue.

ANKARA - TEPAV Director Prof. Dr. Güven Sak stressed that the competitiveness of Turkey's industrial sector between 2007 and 2010 decreased from 53^rd place to 61^st. Sak said, "the industrial sector needs a strategy to be issued by the public sector."

Within the scope of the 14^th anniversary of the Competition Authority of Turkey, a symposium was held in Ankara on Wednesday, 23 March, with the theme Micro Reforms and Competition Policy for Turkey.  The symposium was composed of protocol speeches, a keynote speech and two discussion sessions. Sak delivered a presentation titled, "No Wise Man Enters the Industrial Sector in this Milieu." Speaking at the Industrial Policy-Competition Policy Relations session,  Sak stated that industrialization is the driving force of sustainable productivity gains in the medium term and said, "until the present, Turkey has increased its total productivity by expanding employment in the industrial sector, which has had high productivity. But we have come to the end of the urbanization process that has triggered the productivity gains so far. Now, we need to increase the productivity of the industrial sector; but we have problems with competitiveness." He said that Turkey, which had been in the innovation-based economy group in 2009, had been downgraded to the category of a productivity-based economy by 2010 and concluded that efforts must be made to improve competitiveness.

Commenting on the industrial strategy of Turkey, Sak maintained, "while the diversity has increased in the long term, the performance of the sector in terms of product sophistication has not become distinguished. The current level of product diversification should have brought a higher level of wealth. This means that the sophistication of production is problematic."  He added that the way to prosper was not to leave the old sectors, but to enter new sectors as well as to produce sophisticated and unique products. Stressing the importance of improving the competence of all regions and identifying the direction of product diversification, he noted that, "some provinces have ensured product diversification while others are competitive in only a few products."

Competition advocacy to gain importance

Touching upon Turkey's competition policy, Sak stressed that the importance of competition advocacy would grow in the coming period. In this context, he said that the Competition Letters the Authority had been sending to inform institutions were an important step to this end and that the Competition Report was on its way.

To reach the presentation of Güven Sak in Turkish, please click here.