Vice President Yilmaz: ‘So far, more than 300 million in grant support has been provided to Tunceli’

Deputy President Cevdet Yılmaz stated, ‘Fırat Development Agency, which provides investment support to the region, has very successful works and analyses. It also offers technical support and grant support. The Development Agency has provided Tunceli with grant support exceeding 300 million so far.’ Deputy President Cevdet Yılmaz met with business people at the ‘Business Meeting’ program held in Tunceli. Speaking at the meeting held at Tunceli GAMER center, Yılmaz said, ‘Our country is a great country, each region has its own unique beauties and potentials. Wherever you go, there are truly different advantages and beauties. We just need to discover these and develop strategies based on these advantages for the development of that region. Tunceli is a region with immense beauties, a deep-rooted history, and culture. Unfortunately, this region could not fully realize its potential in the past due to the lack of peace and security. The people living here suffered the most from this. Our youth faced unemployment issues. The population had to migrate. But now there is a very different environment. Our Governor showed us some areas, and in the coming periods, there is a tremendous potential that can be utilized for nature tourism. I believe that in nature tourism and faith tourism, Tunceli will reach a different level in this peaceful and secure environment. A process has already started. In recent years, many people have been coming to Tunceli. If we can develop the infrastructure in a more systematic way, much greater benefits will emerge, hopefully. Agriculture and food have an important aspect for Tunceli. We have a region that is extremely suitable for organic farming, good farming. We are talking about a region with unique beauties from its garlic to its red-spotted trout. If we can evaluate our natural assets without disrupting them, we can integrate nature tourism, faith tourism, and agriculture. Along with light industries, Tunceli can go to a much different place than it is today. Despite what anyone says, we have made significant investments in the last 20 years. We have made investments from transportation infrastructure to university investments. Our Munzur University has one of the most beautiful campuses in Turkey. It was a campus area that we planned when I was the Minister of Development. We planned it all and implemented it in parts. It has an important infrastructure in terms of education as well. We must evaluate all of these. I also want to underline this: a region cannot develop solely with public investments. Public investments have their limits. When public investments and private investments are considered together and developed together, a region can truly develop. We have experienced this in the past. Now there is a suitable environment for this here. The current business and investment environment is in a very convenient position. We also have incentives. By benefiting from these incentives, we also have corporate structures that did not exist before. When I was the Minister of Development, we established a development agency in this region. We have the Firat Development Agency covering Elazığ, Tunceli, Bingöl, and Malatya provinces. This agency has very successful works and analyses. It also offers technical support and grant support. So far, there has been grant support exceeding 300 million to Tunceli. On the other hand, we have the DAP Regional Development Administration. In the past, there was only the GAP, and we reinforced this with new regional development administrations. One of these is the Eastern Anatolia Regional Development Administration Presidency. Their support is available in various areas, especially in agriculture. I think there is much work to be done in Tunceli considering all these mechanisms and incentive policies. Just to give an example, a significant hot spring was discovered recently. On one side there is a ski resort, and on the other side, there is a ski resort. These should be looked at from a private sector perspective. Our accommodation infrastructure is inadequate in the face of developments. If we want to develop tourism through accommodation infrastructure, we definitely need to support it. There is a great benefit in developing accommodation facilities of various types and for different groups. Nothing happens without people. The purpose of all these efforts is employment.’
‘If we focus on the targets, the population of Tunceli will increase.’ Deputy President Yılmaz emphasized the need to develop vocational training infrastructure, especially focusing on tourism in the region, saying, ‘It is necessary to address this issue together with an application school or hotel. We need to train more qualified personnel so that we can develop the service sector much faster with qualified individuals trained in physical infrastructure. I believe that the representatives of our business world will bring important ideas today. If the central administration, local government, university, and business world can focus on the same goals together, there is no reason we cannot succeed. When we do these, the population of Tunceli will increase. We need to ensure reverse migration. People should be able to come and settle back here. They should be able to earn a living here and have a qualified living environment. In this sense, I also want to express that we are ready to provide all the support we can. As a person from this region, I have been to Tunceli many times. We have done as much work as we could until today, but now is the time. It is possible for our regions to develop and increase their welfare much faster. We can do this in cooperation between the public and private sectors. We also need to do some regional planning. In today’s world, it is necessary to think beyond provincial planning and consider the neighboring provinces. For example, when we take only one center in tourism, you can use the potential up to a point, but when we think in the context of regional destination, different potentials emerge. Therefore, together with neighboring provinces such as Elazığ, Bingöl, and Erzincan, we can put forward new projects and ideas for the future of our region. If we can work on concrete project ideas through these types of meetings from time to time in the future, it can be very beneficial. By prioritizing certain projects and continuing our path, I sincerely believe that we can benefit our people living in this region, especially our youth.’