Turquality in extenso - with the latest amendments of the notification
What is Turquality?
Today, companies are moving on a global, digital and evolving platform where only producing a product is not enough and competition is getting more intense. Brands must understand expectations of future as well as evolving digital technologies in order to achieve quality and efficient production and sustainable success. Organizations are getting more and more focused on proactive innovation and design initiatives for continuous transformation and increasing competitiveness. With this strategy, Turquality Corporate Development and Branding Program has been created by the TurkishRepublic Ministry of Economy in order to create world brands in different industries and add value to the future of country.
Turquality Program is the first and only state-supported branding program supporting national brands that have the vision of being a global player in international markets. Turquality provides brands the opportunity to develop their managerial knowledge, institutionalization and development by encouraging them to work with best inclass consulting companies in their areas. The consulting services supported by Turquality Program covers all areas of consulting from production to marketing, from sales and after sales services to innovation, from corporate governance, strategy and finance to supporting functions human resources and information systems.
PROs and CONs of Turquality Program
As opposed to classical export supports, the focus of the Turquality Program is rather to contribute to the corporate development and branding goals of companies. However, most of the companies only aim and focus on the financial benefits of the program due to misdirection or incomplete information. If your goal is only using the financial benefits of the Turquality program, it is better to consider using other state supports as Turquality is a compelling and demanding development program with a holistic perspective.
In accordance with the structure of your company, your business processes can include long and detailed way of operations from purchasing to production, from procurement to management of financial resources or from international promotion and marketing of the product to pricing and sales. No matter in which industry your company is operating or how big it is, the most crucial requirement of corporate development is to have a clearly defined, regular and independently running corporate governance model. For this reason, Turquality Program provides you a guideline to strengthen your strategy development, supply chain, planning, marketing, sales, and even supportive functions and supports you to continue your development considering your custom needs and sectoral benchmarks.
Latest Amendments in Turquality
The Turquality Program was launched in2004 for brands in textile and ready-to-wear clothes sectors and currently includes 186 brands of 175 companies,. In time, Turquality Program extended its scope with fast moving and and durable consumer goods, jewelry, metal and mining, automotive, and industrial products and services. With the latestamend ments, Turquality Program started to cover gastronomy and foreign exchange earning service sectors.
The Communiqué (Communiqué No: 2017/2)published in the Official Gazette No 30083 on 1 June 2017, amending theCommuniqué (Communiqué No: 2006/4) on “Branding of Turkish Products Abroad,Placing the Image of Turkish Goods and Supporting Turquality®” has implemented critical changes affecting the stakeholders of Turquality Program that can be listed as organizations(Turkish Exporters Associations, Exporters Unions, Producer Associations andProducer Unions), companies and management consulting firms. The changes on theApplication Procedures and Principles of the Communiqué No 2006/4 has become effective as of 25.08.2017. The effects of the legislation on application procedures and principles are given below.
1. Target Country Focus:
Turquality Program aims developing brands in the target countries that they have identified within the scope of the Development Roadmap. Before the amendments, the activities of these brands carried out in the target countries were supported without any time constraint. In addition, activities carried out in countries other than target countries were also supported under the Turquality Program. One of the most important factors in the amendment of the legislation is the increased focus on the target countries and various restrictions introduced. Companies will only be deemed to have identified the countries identified in the Development Roadmap study as a target country upon admission to the program. Companies will be able to identify the target countries after the application date for automation and get support for the activities carried out in the relevant target countries for 5years. The start date of the 5-year period shall be deemed to be the date of the first payment document relating to the first activity carried out in the relevant target market and the file approved. With the change in the legislation, the fact that the companies are the countries that will focus and/ or branded the most and the approval for these countries has gained importance for the companies to benefit most effectively from the program.However, additional target country additions may be provided with Annex-14 in order to benefit from the new opportunities that companies have discovered in the new target countries.
2. Support Period:
Turquality Program was implemented as 5 + 5 years before the change of the legislation.The Turquality Program now has an unlimited support period according to the legislative amendment published on 01/06/2017 and put into practice on 25/08/2018.However, within the framework of same amendment, each target country determined by the companies will remain within the scope of support for only five years.In this context, companies will be able to benefit from support for different countries in different periods, provided that they do not exceed five years.
3. Change in Support Upper Limits:
The upper limits of the support, which are already designated as US Dollars, have beenconverted into Turkish Lira with the new legislation. With the amendment made to the legislation, the upper limits of support in some support areas have been rearranged. The upper limits of the support will be updated at the beginning of each calendar year according to the inflation rate, which is calculated by the formula (CPI + D-PPI) / 2, average of consumer price index and domestic producer price index
4. Development Roadmap Support Rate:
The support ratio of the Development Roadmap, conducted by management consulting firms after acceptance of the brand in Turquality Program, was revised as 50%. In this context, the support rate of the Development Roadmap projects, of which payment is made after the date of legislation’s entry into force, will be applied as 50%.
5. Receipt of Applications through the Automation System:
The Turquality Program will only receive all applications from the automation system as of 25/08/2017. The accuracy of all the documents submitted by the system and the obligation to store the documents belong to the company for 10years. The support application date is accepted as the date application is transmitted to the system via e-signature.
In case of any deficiency including the approval of the Commercial Counselor in the required documents, the investigator does not apply the missing document procedure for the mentioned expenditure and rejects the application for support. In case of errors in the application such as expenditure amount, date, typo, etc.,missing document procedure may be applied.
Users of Turquality automation system authorized by companies should apply to Turquality Secretariat with the e-signature commitment letter in the annex. Maximum 2people may be authorized and the authorized person must be employed within the company.
6. Benefiting from Other Export Supports:
Within the scope of the new legislation, the brands supported under the Turquality program are allowed to benefit from other export-oriented government supports. In this context, the brands currently supported in Turquality Program can also apply for below listed support programs:
· Turkish Trade Centers
· International Fairs
· Communiqué on Promoting InternationalCompetitiveness
· Global Supply Chain Support, Delegations and Company Purchase Support
Supports that currently supported companies cannot benefit are given below. When examined in detail, it will be seen that these supports are already covered by Turquality Program.
· Support provided under the Decision onSupporting Market Entry Certificates, excluding global supply chain support
· Overseas market research support provided under the Communiqué on Market Research and Market Entry Support
· Individual consultancy support provided under the Communiqué on the Promotion of Promotion of InternationalCompetitiveness
· Supports provided under the Communiqué onSupporting Foreign Unit, Brand and Promotion Activities, excluding the TurkishTrade Center Support
· Support provided by the Communiqué onSupporting Fair Participations in Abroad
7. New SupportItems:
In line with the needs of the companies and the requirements of the new legislation, new support items have been added to the hundreds included in the items supported in Turquality Program.
· Product Display Conservotary
· Renewal of Brand Registration
· Storage Services
· Concept Architectural Expenses
· New Consulting Services
· Authorization and Clinical Test expenses compulsory for entry to foreign markets
· Industrial product designer employed in product development
Pleasecontact Orbis Consultants for detailed information on the list of supportitems, support times, support rates, and support upper limits valid for eachsupport area.
