Economy

Poorest parts of Turkey to get $14bn investment

December 31, 2024, 4:49 PM

Farmers in Birecik wash their garlic harvest in the Euphrates. The regions close to the Syrian border have traditionally been the poorest in Turkey

Funding for 200 projects in southeast
Irrigation and farming support
Area borders Syria and Iraq

The Turkish government has revealed plans to invest more than $14 billion into the country’s underdeveloped southeast.

Spending will be ramped up in the nine of Turkey’s 81 provinces that constitute the area close to the borders of Syria and Iraq, traditionally the poorest in the country, with funding to be provided for 200 projects.

The hope is that improved economic conditions and peace in Syria will bring increased wealth and stability to the region.

One of the main initiatives will be to support agricultural production, with plans to expand irrigation networks to supply water to 475,000 hectares of land by 2028 and create employment for 570,000 people.

The initiative will have a significant impact on both the regional and national economies, according to Mehmet Fatih Kacır, minister of industry and technology.

“With the implementation of the projects, we anticipate an additional 49,000 lira ($1,400) increase in annual income per capita in the region,” he said when unveiling the scheme in the southeastern city of Şanlıurfa.

If achieved, this would lift regional per capita income by more than a quarter, to approximately $6,400, though even this increase would still leave income in the southeast well short of the national average of around $13,250.

The investments also aim to increase the region’s share of national crop production to 21.5 percent and boost value added inputs of the agricultural sector, Kacır said.

Much of the funding will be directed to the Southeast Anatolian Project (GAP), first launched in 1989 as a state initiative to lift the region out of poverty by creating infrastructure and employment opportunities.

Central to the development programme was the construction of a series of dams to generate electricity and provide irrigation to the semi-arid southeast.

While many of the dams were built, regional prosperity did not follow, in part because of a 40-year-long insurrection by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the outlawed militant group, and the state’s response. This has resulted in the loss of more than 40,000 lives and heavy damage to the regional economy.

The government has been talking to the PKK to try to broker an end to the armed conflict. The group’s imprisoned leader, Abdullah Ocalan, captured in 1999, recently said he could support efforts to establish peace.

The planned increase in agricultural output is also expected to benefit food-processing industries, with expanded crop production forecast to lead to further downstream investment.

Mustafa Fidan, president of the Diyarbakır Organised Industrial Zone, said the proposed investments will help revitalise the area’s economy.

“This region is an agricultural zone. Once the irrigation system is established and related agricultural industries become active, Turkey’s economy will get a significant boost,” he told AGBI.

Another potential incentive for investment is the region’s proximity to Syria.

The Turkish vice-president, Cevdet Yılmaz, also speaking at the launch of the investment initiative, said: “The opportunities that will come with the new era in Syria will increase the welfare of our entire country. Our southeastern region will benefit more from these developments.”

Fidan agreed, saying the recent developments in Syria were very important for Turkey, with the two economies long having been linked.

“Once the rebuilding of Syria begins, I believe the regions in Turkey that will gain the most will be the southeast and eastern Anatolia, due to our border with them and our potential,” he said.