Türkçe

REGIONAL COMPETITIVENESS OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME

One the most important pillar of Turkey- European Union (EU) relations is the “financial cooperation process.” The financial cooperation process between Turkey and the EU has changed significantly through the negotiation process of Turkey started on 3^rd of October 2005.

In this context, European Union has brought all pre-accession assistance under a single programme for the candidate and potential candidate countries for 2007-2013 periods. Within the framework of this new programme which is called as “Instrument for Pre Accession Assistance-IPA”, financial aids allocated to Turkey will be used in accordance with the approach applied in the EU Member States. Thus, the main objective of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance will be to prepare Turkey for the management and implementation of Structural Funds upon accession.

There will be several public institutions which will take part within this new process in Turkey . Ministry of Industry and Trade is one of those public institutions which will play important role in the IPA system which will have coordination, programming, implementation, monitoring and control axes.

Ministry of Industry and Trade, as one of the Operating Structures in the IPA system established in Turkey , is responsible for the preparation and implementation of the Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme.

Operational Programme is a kind of investment programme which consist of a coherent set of “priority axis” divided in measures and means to achieve the expected results. Within this framework, the Operational Programmes are the backbone of the IPA system. Operational Programmes should be consistent and in compliance with the Multi-annual Indicative Planning Document and the Strategic Coherence Framework prepared by the European Commission and State Planning Organization respectively.

Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme covering 2007-2009 periods was submitted for the opinions of the EU Member States in October 2007 and after getting positive opinions of the EU Member States it was officially approved by the European Commission on 29^th of November 2007.

Regional Competitiveness Operational Programme can be implemented after the accreditation of the management and control systems which are now being established for the proper management and implementation of the programmes and after the signature of the Framework Agreement to be concluded for all the IPA components and Financing Agreement to be concluded for the Regional Development component.