Turkey's expense on R&D raise to 0.9 percent

ANKARA

The share of gross domestic expenditure on research and development (R&D) activities keep rising in Turkey, the share increasing to 0.9 percent last year, while the government aims to raise it to 3 percent by 2023.

The gross domestic expenditure on R&D increased to 13 million Turkish Liras ($6.5 million) last year with a 17.1 percent rise from 2011, according to figures revealed by the state-run statistic body TÜİK Nov. 20. It was 0.8 percent in 2011.

The Turkish government aims to increase its central budget allocation to R&D to 3 percent, valuing approximately $60 billion, by 2023, Technology Minister Nihat Ergün said last month.

Although, the average of the gross domestic expenditure on R&D was 2.38 percent among the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries in 2010, according to the OECD data.

Last year, 45.1 percent of R&D expenditure was performed by the business enterprise sector, 43.9 percent by higher education institutes and 11 percent by the government.

The business enterprise sector had the largest share in R&D financiers with 46.8 percent, followed by the government sector with 28.2 percent, the higher education sector with 21.1 percent, other national sources with 3.4 percent and foreign funds with 0.6 percent.