Abstract:

The manufacturing industry began to develop rapidly after the proclamation of the Republic of Turkey. In a global perspective, however, the competitive power of the Turkish manufacturing industry remains relatively weak. The share of high technology products in the manufacturing industry being considerably low reduces the development and competition chance of the sector. In this study, the development of the industrial sector between 1923-2018 was examined. The focus of this study is the changes that took place in the technological structure of the manufacturing industry, especially during the years 2003-2018. The data used in the study were obtained from World Bank, TURKSTAT and CBRT data distribution systems. The results of the analyses revealed that industrial production is based on low and medium-low technology in Turkey. In Turkey, while the share of high-tech products in manufacturing exports in 2017 is only 3.8%, share of high-tech products in the import of manufacturing industry is around 15%. In the last 17 years, the share of industrial high-technology production in total industrial production is gradually decreasing. Moreover, when the pricing structure of the manufacturing industry is analyzed, it is revealed that the biggest cost item in the manufacturing industry is the imported intermediate inputs. Therefore, the import dependency of the manufacturing industry is very high in Turkey.

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