Education projects top technology investments

ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency

The government plans to purchase at least 10. 6 million tablet PCs within its Fatih Project, which received the highest investment with $1.4 bililon.

The Turkish government is hitting the gas on technology investments by raising its share in investments by 37 percent from last year, mainly in the education sector, which gets almost half of the investments.

The investment allocation for technology this year will be over 3.5 billion Turkish Liras, according to data revealed by the Development Ministry showing investments had jumped sixfold in 11 years as a result of the government’s boosting of efforts for the sector. The information and communication technologies’ allocation of the central budget was 654 million liras in 2002.

While the government’s technology investments have been soaring each year – except 2008 – the last three years’ increase was mainly focused on education projects.

The education sector gained the lion’s share of investments from the central government’s budget in 2013 as well, as 45 percent of the planned investments are slated for the sector.

Individual projects also show an emphasis on education at the top of this list as well: the Fatih Project. The project ranks top among technology investments, receiving 1.4 billion liras of the budget allocation.
The project is one of the trademark projects of the government, in which it will purchase at least 10.6 million tablet PCs to distribute in schools.

The first stage of the tender was completed on June 24 with the collection of preliminary qualifications of 11 foreign and local technology firms, including some of the world’s largest like Apple, Microsoft, Toshiba and Samsung.