Turkey leads in financial support earmarked for overseas fairs, according to CNR Holding's Survey on International Fair Support by Countries.
While the government provides $13,500 to $65,000 for participation in overseas fairs, an incentive of TL 38,000 is allocated for companies participating in domestic fairs.
Japan comes second in the survey with $13,500, followed by France with $5,000 to $8,833, Germany with 5,000 euros ($5,521), and the U.K. with 500 pounds ($640) to 2,000 pounds.
The survey also underlines that the share allocated from the Trade Ministry's budget for the support of participation in international fairs in 2018 was TL 500 million, while this figure, together with Small and Medium Enterprises Development and Support Administration (KOSGEB), URGE, delegations and similar promotional activities, may cross over TL 1 billion in 2019.
The CNR survey further suggests that the amount of support can quadruple with the participation of prestigious events in overseas trade fair participation, highlighting that the international fairs organized in Turkey have been supported for two years. Pointing to the importance of effective use of these supports, the survey also argues that the contribution of foreign fairs to exports remains insufficient.
Evaluating the results of the survey, CNR Holding Chairman Ceyda Erem said the support given to international fairs was not efficient enough according to the figures. She stressed that it was beneficial to reconsider all the supports, especially for the international fairs, to exist in the global competition.
"We can see that the support given to the companies in Turkey at the rate of 50% for their overseas participation, 60% in priority countries and 70% in target countries has reached 90% in recent years," Erem said.
"The support allocated to domestic fairs should be increased both in financial terms and the number of fairs covered. Our state gives important support to our companies participating in fairs both in Turkey and abroad, which is indeed very valuable, but we need to expand the support given to domestic fairs. This support is very important both for our sector, which tries to exceed 1.5% share in the world fair industry, and to increase the interest of domestic companies in exports."
