Turkish gov’t to give $553 mln support to small businesses

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced May 17 financial support to small enterprises and tradesmen ahead of the “normalization” process that will start from June 1
Erdoğan said following a cabinet meeting that 235 thousand enterprises, which he defined as the first group, will be given 5 thousand Turkish Liras (roughly $600) of grant for one time.
In this group, there are businesses such as coffee, coffee house, patisserie, internet cafe, and tea gardens.
The second group, which includes 1 million 150 thousand enterprises, will be given 3 thousand liras (roughly Ş360), again for once.
This group includes maintenance and repair stores, hardware stores, musicians, car washers, toy shops, cosmetics sellers, coppersmiths, shoemakers, apparel, barbers, bus shops, bazaar sellers and restaurants.
Thus, the government will give a resource of 4.6 billion liras (roughly $553 million) to 1 million 385 thousand enterprises and persons in total.

The president also announced a credit linefor small enterprises under the name of “breath loan.” Details of this will be announced by the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, he added

Erdoğan also said debts of farmers hurt by this year’s drought will also be postponed.

Erdoğan also said the pandemic was “largely under control”, Erdogan said. The number of new cases stood at 10,561 on May 16, with 223 people loosing their lives.

“We discussed the second phase of the gradual normalization calendar, and we will share the principles of practice in this regard according to the developments in the coming days. We hope that from now on there will be no need for as much comprehensive and restrictive measures as before, ”he said.

The current measures, which include daily partial curfews, will continue until 1 June.