Turkey will continue to support the real sector after it allocated an estimated TL 37 billion ($9.7 billion) in resources in 2018 national budget.

It has also allocated TL 2 billion for the center of attraction program that will support investments and development projects in eastern and southeastern Anatolia.

The Budget Planning Commission began discussions on the new budget in November and it was placed in the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) on Dec. 11. After days of prolonged discussions and negotiations, Parliament Saturday ratified the budget proposal.

In 2018, the real sector support from the budget was set at TL 37 billion. Among the real sector supports, social security employer premium support received the biggest share worth TL 20.3 billion.

Accordingly, TL 20.3 billion will be allocated to the social security premium support, TL 3.2 billion to export support, TL 3 billion to credit guarantee fund payments, TL 2.6 billion to agricultural loan interest support, and TL 2 billion to the attraction centers program.

Around TL 1.7 billion will go to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) support, TL 1.5 billion to interest support for traders' loans, TL 1 billion to Eximbank's capital increase, TL 900 million for tourism sector support and TL 800 million will be allocated for investment incentives.

In 2017, treasury-backed loans worth TL 196.7 billion were provided to 350,000 enterprises to stimulate the economy. The amount reached TL 219 billion. In 2018, export subsidies will be raised to TL 3.2 billion, and TL 1 billion has been allocated in the 2018 budget to increase Eximbank's capital. Meanwhile, TL 4.9 billion was put aside for Research and Development (R&D).

The amount allocated for investment expenditures stood at TL 85.1 billion. Given the sectorial distribution of investments, the transport sector will take the highest share of public investments with TL 25.5 billion, followed by the education sector with TL 14.3 billion, the agricultural sector with TL 10.1 billion and the health sector with TL 8.5 billion.

In 2018, the biggest share was allocated to education with TL 134 billion, followed by the health sector with TL 127 billion.

From the 2018 Annual Budget, TL 728 billion was allocated to local governments and TL 900 million to KÖYDES, a project to develop rural infrastructure.

To date, TL 2.6 billion has been allocated to agencies that play a role in regional development. Next year, TL 452 million will be transferred to these institutions.

The SODES project, which was designed to support local projects for social purposes, is projected to have TL 281 million in resources in 2018, while TL 1.1 billion was allocated to the project between 2009 and 2017.