Three Turkish companies in top R&D spenders list

Sabah – Three Turkish companies have left their mark on the worldwide research and development (R&D) expenditures list. According to an EU Commission Report on global R&D spending, Türkiye’s Koc Holding, Tofas and Vestel ranked 505th, 529th and 1096th, respectively, on the list of the world’s leading companies in terms of R&D spending.
From Koc Holding’s 2009 turnover of EUR 13 billion, EUR 118 million (approx. 0.9 percent) was spent on R&D studies, while Tofas, a joint venture between Koc Holding and Italian car maker FIAT, spent almost 4.7 percent of its turnover of EUR 2.372 billion on R&D. Tofas’s R&D spending was cut back by 19 percent when compared with the previous year.
Electronics producer Vestel has spent EUR 42.92 million on R&D studies, roughly corresponding to 2 percent of its 2009 income of EUR 2.1 billion.