This was stated by Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır in his speech at the AI Tomorrow Summit 2024, which was held for the sixth time this year at the Ankara Bilkent Hotel and Conference Center under the slogan “We are in the future.” Entrepreneurs and civil society actors themselves are participating in Turkey's “National Technology Move” journey. He said this was valuable for him.
Emphasizing that they owe all the successes achieved on this path to Turkey's entrepreneurial power, Kacır said that the main task of the political institution and public administration is to remove the obstacles faced by Turkish entrepreneurs and to ensure their acceleration, and that they will take every step with this belief.
Emphasizing that they have structured all the work they have done as a ministry under the title of “National Technology Move,” Kacır said, “'National Technology Move' is Turkey's path to complete independence in critical technologies. Turkey's ability to develop high-tech.” “The path to being export-ready and thus strengthening its technological, economic and political independence and increasing social welfare thanks to the economic gains achieved.” gave his assessment.
Stating that they have achieved great success so far in the National Technology Move, Kacır explained that in many fields, especially in the defense industry, Turkey is not a customer of technology, but a developer, a producer and a country that can offer high-technology products to the world competitively.
Stating that this did not happen overnight, Kacır said, “The steps taken for 22 years under the leadership of our President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan were made possible thanks to the huge R&D and innovation ecosystem and the structures emerging in this ecosystem,” he said.
Kacır recalled that the annual number of scientific publications in Turkey was about 15,000 in 2006 and said that this number exceeded 48,000 last year.
Stating that the annual number of patent applications increased from 414 to 8,663 during the same period, Kacır said, “All this shows the importance of the steps we have taken and the ecosystem we have built. Turkish industry exports to the whole world with the power of R&D and innovation Our industrial sectors “High-tech companies have differentiated themselves from other groups and have grown in the last 5 years,” he said.
“The defense industry is writing an epic”
Pointing out that Turkey is a huge industrial country, Kacır said, “We continue to take steps to make Turkey self-sufficient through investments, employment, production and exports in critical technologies, strengthen skilled employment, increase high-technology exports and increase value addition.” In the field of technology, “We believe that paradigm shifts offer unique opportunities for Turkey. It is a high-tech race and we are not alone in the race,” he said.
Kacır stated that Turkey has the potential to become an aviation country in the 20th century and that efforts are being made to develop the aviation sector in the country.
Kacır stressed that Turkey is more successful than its competitors in this difficult sector in the 21st century:
“Today, Turkey's unmanned aerial vehicles are revealing success stories that the whole world is following closely, our friends with envy and our enemies with concern. They are changing the paradigm of war. When necessary, they undertake missions for the benefit of humanity and we do things that people all over the world are watching live.” We experienced a major breakthrough in technology and turned to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which we can call robotic aircraft, earlier than others. Instead of following our competitors in the fields where they were very successful, instead of copying and pasting their strategies, we developed our original roadmaps and opportunities. “We implemented them by taking our strengths into account. We have become number one in the world.” In this field, we are writing an epic today from UAVs, Bayraktars to Anka, from Akıncı to Kızılelma.
“We will continue to launch new national technology initiatives in Turkey”
Stating that there are many sectors that will be transformed by artificial intelligence, Kacır said, “In each of these sectors, there are unique opportunities for Turkey. One of them is the automotive sector. Turkey is an automotive country, a country where many global brands export more than 30 billion dollars.” gave his assessment.
Stating that they will always focus on paradigm shifts and strive to achieve results in innovative technology fields, Kacır said, “We will continue to launch new national technology initiatives in Turkey under public guidance, as in the TOGG project. As we have shown success story in defense industry in the last 22 years, in the coming years, “We as Turkey will achieve similar successes in space technology. We will get an increasing share in the global space economy year by year. We are talking about a space economy that has already exceeded 600 billion dollars,” he said.
Stating that the space economy is expected to reach $1.5 trillion in 12 years, Kacır stressed that with their policies, new generation satellite initiatives and human space programs, they will ensure that Turkey gets a bigger share of this pie.
Stating that artificial intelligence is one of the distances to be covered in this process, Kacır said, “Artificial intelligence is creating a huge revolution, like the internet, and with its developing and increasing data processing capacity, it brings applications that surpass human performance.” “As Turkey, we cannot stay out of this process in all areas,” he said.
Stressing that artificial intelligence is on the rise worldwide, Kacır said that the number of scientific studies and patents in the field of artificial intelligence has increased rapidly.
Reminding that the National Strategy for Artificial Intelligence was published to structure Turkey's studies in the field of artificial intelligence and to determine Turkey's priorities, Kacır informed about the studies to be carried out within the scope of the strategy.
Kacır stated that TÜBİTAK research institutes also play an important role in the defense industry, from cryptology to space, from energy and environmental technologies to polar research.
Kacır stated that TÜBİTAK strongly supports all research and development activities in Turkey and that they also established the TÜBİTAK Institute of Artificial Intelligence.
Emphasizing that they structured this institute differently from other institutes, Kacır said, “We wanted this to be an institute that would bring together the entire Turkish artificial intelligence research ecosystem and play the role of a catalyst and a bridge rather than employing researchers within ourselves. Following this understanding, we aim to integrate sectors and research fields horizontally.” “It was our first institute established with a direct focus on a cutting-edge and emerging technology field,” he said.
Kacır recalled that they have been involved in international partnerships in recent years to achieve the goals within the framework of their strategies and stated that they attach great importance to standards in this field.
Kacır said the following about productive artificial intelligence:
“Investments in productive artificial intelligence have increased fivefold in 2023, with around $25 billion invested globally in startups working on productive artificial intelligence. This is a sign of what a…” Great revolution we are in.
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