Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs), which constitutes 99.8 percent of the total number of enterprises registered in Turkey, has managed to exceed big companies by providing 56.4 percent of the country's total exports, according to research published by the Turkish Statistical Institute (Turkstat) on Thursday

Exports by large enterprises (250+) constituted 43.5 percent of total exports, while the rate of micro enterprises (one to nine employees) was 17.3 percent, small enterprises (10-49 employees) was 20.7 percent, and medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) was 18.4 percent.

SMEs operating in the industry sector accounted for 35 percent of exports and SMEs whose main activity was trade garnered 60.7 percent of exports.

The proportion of SMEs in imports in the same period was 37.8 percent. The rate of micro enterprises (one to nine employees) was 6.2 percent, small enterprises (10-49 employees) were 13.2 percent, medium-sized enterprises (50-249 employees) were 18.4 percent and large enterprises (250+) were 62.2 percent for imports.

The main destination of SME exports was Europe with 50.5 percent, followed by Asia with 39.8 percent. These exports respectively accounted for 48.1 and 35.5 off all exports made to Europe and Asia.

Led by wearing apparel and textiles with a share of 25.4 percent, 91.6 percent of all SME exports were industrial products.

A total of 2,695,131 SME's provided 74.2 percent of employment and 54.7 percent of wages and salaries in 2013.

While 60.8 percent of SME's in the manufacturing industry worked with a low technology level, 55.1 percent of employment and 43.6 percent of value added at factors costs were generated by these enterprises.

In 2014, $3.061 billion worth research and development expenditure was performed by SME's, which account for 17.4 percent of all R&D spending in Turkey while employing 26.5 percent of a total 115,444 workforce in R&D.