The Employment Criteria Within the Employment Committed SME Support Programme Have Been Relieved in Six Provinces Affected by the Earthquake.

The employment criteria within the Employment Committed SME Support Programme have been relieved in six provinces affected by the earthquake within Empowering the Private Sector to Foster Social and Economic Cohesion in Türkiye (FOSTER) which is financed by the European Union, managed by KfW Development Bank and implemented by KOSGEB.

The following conveniences have been provided to beneficiary SMEs in the earthquake affected FOSTER Project provinces, namely Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis and Şanlıurfa;

Revision in Job Creation Criteria in Six Provinces

The requirement that at least half of the jobs committed shall be created, will be skipped in six earthquake affected project provinces; namely Adana, Gaziantep, Şanlıurfa, Kilis, Kahramanmaraş and Hatay. Winning SMEs within the SME Support Mechanism in these six provinces will be free to fulfil their commitments through job retention or job creation.

Flexibility in SSI Premium Days

Within the programme, SMEs are required to pay at least 80 SSI premium days for each created or retained employment within the respective 4-month period. The requirement has been reduced to 40 days for SMEs operating in Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis and Şanlıurfa. SMEs in Ankara, Bursa, İstanbul, İzmir, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mardin and Mersin shall pay at least 40 SSI premium days only in the first monitoring period instead of 80 for each employment. For the remaining monitoring periods, at least 80 SSI premium days is required to be paid in these nine provinces.

One-third of the total SSI premium days for the 12 (twelve) months prior to the announcement date of the call for proposals will not be applied towards the fulfilment criteria.