SMEs shoulder Turkish economy

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME), account for 99.8 percent of all enterprises; 75.8 percent of total employment, 54.5 percent of all wages and salaries, 63.3 percent of total turnover, 54.2 percent of added value at factor cost and 53.2 percent of gross investment in material goods, according to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) yesterday. Analysts say that this shows that SMEs are the backbone of the economy.

The share in exports of micro-scaled enterprises with one to nine staff was around 17.8 percent; small-scaled enterprises with 10 to 49 staff was 24.1 percent; middle-scaled enterprises with 50 to 249 members of staff was 17.3 percent and large-scaled enterprises with over 250 members of staff accounted for 40.7 percent of total exports.

When the activity scopes of SMEs involved in exports were examined, the statistics revealed that 35 percent of SMEs are engaged in industrial activities, while 60.4 percent are included in the trade sector. The share in imports of micro-scaled enterprises with one to nine staff was around 5.7 percent; small-scaled enterprises with 10 to 49 staff was 16.2 percent; middle-scaled enterprises with 50 to 249 members of staff was 17.9 percent and large-scaled enterprises with over 250 members of staff accounted for 60.1 percent of total imports.

When the activity scopes of SMEs involved in import were examined, the statistics revealed that 34.9 percent of SMEs are engaged in industrial activities, while 55.9 percent are included in the trade sector. In 2013, SMEs carried out 45.5 percent of their exports to European countries, while 38.7 percent of them were made to Asian countries. SMEs imported 51.4 and 38.9 percent of their goods from European and Asian countries respectively in the same period.

The clothing sector constituted 14.5 percent of SMEs' exports followed by the base metal and textile industries with 12.1 and 10.3 percent respectively. The sectors that stood out in SMEs' imports were the chemicals and chemical industry, base metals and non-classified machinery and equipment with 15.6, 14.8 and 12.7 percent respectively.

In terms of the number of employees, in the three-year period between 2010 and 2012, 48.5 percent of the enterprises that employed 10 or more workers were engaged in innovation activities. This figure was recorded as 48 percent when it came to SMEs that employed between 10 and 249 staff. As far as the number of employees is concerned, 46.5 percent of SMEs with 10 to 49 employees and 56.1 percent of SMEs recruiting 50 to 249 workers were engaged in innovation activity. The proportion of innovative SMEs in the industrial sector was recorded as 49 percent, while 46.8 percent of SMEs were recorded as being in the service industry.