KOCAELI, Turkey
At least 5,000 research and developments firms will be established in Turkey’s first "Informatics Valley" in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, the country’s industry minister announced Tuesday.
“Five thousand research and development firms will be established along with recreation and sports areas, educational and social facilities to be used by about 100,000 employees,” said Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Isik, during the groundbreaking ceremony of Turkey's equivalent of a Silicon Valley in the town of Gebze, about 48 kilometers east of Istanbul.
The "Informatics Valley" project is to be built on a 3 million-square-meter area. It will also serve as a training facility with the cooperation of national and international universities and is expected to be the host of Turkey’s first thematic innovation center.
“The sector offering the greatest opportunities for developing countries is the software industry,” said Isik.
The minister stated that Turkey needed to increase the production and exports in the high-tech industry, in order for the country’s economy and social welfare to grow.
“In order to do this we need to focus on establishing research and development firms, innovation, brands and design,” he said.
Isik also said that Turkey was “on the verge of a new breakthrough”.
Throughout the last 13 years, exports of medium- and high-tech products have risen from 53.8 to 64.8 percent of total exports, he added. Furthermore, during that time, the number of “technoparks” - commonly known as technology development zones - hosting companies developing high-tech products, increased from 2 to 59 and the number of research and development centers reached 184, according to Isik.
He added that 34 technology transfer offices, which perform research to determine probable public interest in products or projects and find ways to put them to use, had been built in the last 13 years.
