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Türkiye's small and medium-sized enterprises have emerged as a powerful force driving employment, production, and economic resilience, with senior officials from the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation highlighting the sector's central role in the national economy on the occasion of the UN's MSMEs Day.
Micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises account for 90% of businesses worldwide and roughly 70% of global employment, while contributing around half of global gross domestic product, according to the United Nations.
The UN General Assembly designated June 27 as MSMEs Day in a resolution adopted in April 2017, with this year's edition celebrated under the theme "Empowering MSMEs through Innovation and Sustainable Industrial Development."
Humberto Lopez, Türkiye country director at the World Bank, told Anadolu Agency that small businesses provide 70% of total employment in the country, making policies to empower them "not only an economic but also a social priority."
He said the World Bank and IFC are working in close coordination, combining public and private sector tools across policy, institutional reform, guarantee mechanisms, and crisis response to support what he described as a large and dynamic economy.
Lopez pointed to low-tech manufacturing as an area of significant untapped opportunity, saying that many small businesses in that segment are well positioned to achieve productivity gains, digitalization, and higher value-added production as support mechanisms deepen.
Between 2020 and 2023, World Bank-backed initiatives channeled financing to more than 87,000 MSMEs in Türkiye, helping create or preserve around 115,000 jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the aftermath of the February 2023 earthquakes that struck the country's southeast.
Lopez noted that 77% of new hires supported through those programs were workers under the age of 30, and 61% were women, reflecting a strong inclusive dimension to the recovery effort.
Some 40,000 MSMEs in disaster-affected zones received $450 million in post-earthquake financing from the World Bank, enabling businesses to reconnect with markets, rebuild supply chains, restore labor capacity, and stabilize cash flows in one of the most challenging environments imaginable.
Lisa Kaestner, division director for Türkiye, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan at the IFC, said SMEs form the base of the economy and play a key role in supply chains, local markets, exports, and digital transformation, with their growth generating broad benefits for suppliers, workers, customers, and local communities alike.
The IFC provided a $350 million package through five private banks to support the recovery of small businesses in Türkiye's earthquake-affected southeast, benefiting 55,000 MSMEs including farmers, and helping them reinvest, protect their workforce, and contribute to the revival of the local economy.
Kaestner said the IFC is expanding its partnerships with private banks, leasing firms, and private equity funds to develop longer-term financial products suited to the needs of smaller businesses, covering not only working capital but also energy efficiency, digital transformation, export capacity, and supply chain integration.
She noted that private equity funds can support growth, job creation, and productivity in ways that complement traditional lending.
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Looking ahead, Kaestner said the IFC's priorities in Türkiye include mobilizing greater private capital, strengthening non-bank institutions such as leasing and factoring companies, and making wider use of capital market instruments to diversify financing channels for small businesses.
Women's economic participation featured prominently in her outlook. Kaestner noted that closing the gender gap in workforce participation could potentially drive a 25% increase in GDP, unlocking significant new investment, production, and employment across the economy, and she said women's inclusion remains one of the top items on the IFC's agenda in Türkiye.
Lopez reinforced that vision, saying that making Türkiye's already strong SME base "more efficient, resilient, and inclusive" through targeted support for women, young people, and businesses in regions that need it most will be central to the country's sustainable growth story.
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