Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gül attended an opening ceremony in Kayseri on Saturday for 101 newly completed factories, part of a larger industrial push that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan initiated two years earlier when he laid the foundations for 139 such facilities.
Gül praised entrepreneurs for their confidence in Türkiye's economic future and urged industrialists to channel investment into sectors requiring advanced technology.
He noted that the European Union created funding mechanisms to help member states close the technology gap with the United States and Japan, and that Türkiye participates in the relevant EU framework program. He warned, however, that Türkiye had so far recovered less than a third of its contributions to the fund, largely because universities and research institutions had not submitted enough qualifying projects. "We should produce projects," he said, calling that approach essential to sustainable growth.
Gül also said future reforms would target the unregistered economy. State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Şahin, also speaking at the ceremony, stressed that combating unemployment remained Türkiye's most pressing challenge.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this wire report, first published in November 2006, in its own words.