UPDATE - Turkey to take step to expand its industrial capacity

UPDATES WITH MORE REMARKS BY TURKISH INDUSTRY AND TECHNOLOGY MINISTER

By Sevgi Ceren Gokkoyun

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will establish a new executive industrialization committee to make the country an essential player of global competition by expanding its capacity, the Turkish industry and technology minister said Wednesday.

"We have taken a historic step to strengthen the Turkish industry and technology ecosystem, and the most critical structural reform of the recent period has been made," Mustafa Varank stressed on Wednesday in an event in the capital Ankara.

In this committee, the decisions, which will improve the industry, will be taken together with the relevant ministries, he underlined.

The committee will ease the control of public procurements in line with the indigenous production priorities, the minister also noted.

"We will accelerate the coordination between institutions in areas such as finance, customs, environment, infrastructure, logistics, and energy and help the investors see the future very clearly," Varank said, adding:

"We will encourage the localization of critical products in supply chains and enrich domestic production diversity, and take steps to strengthen the capital structures of manufacturing industry companies."

Turkey's resilience against fluctuations in financial markets will also become stronger with this step, Varank stressed.

He also said Turkey's driving forces are industry and production.

The country's industry sector exports reached $88.9 billion in the first nine months this year, according to official figures.

* Writing by Gokhan Ergocun.