Foundations of Turkey’s Silicon Valley laid

KOCAELİ - Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

The groundbreaking ceremony for Turkey’s Silicon Valley was held in the northwestern province of Kocaeli. At least 5,000 research and developments firms plan to be established in Turkey’s first “Informatics Valley,” the country’s industry minister announced May 26.

“Some 5,000 research and development firms will be established, along with recreation and sports areas and educational and social facilities to be used by about 100,000 employees,” said Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Işık at the ceremony, which took place in the town of Gebze, 48 kilometers east of Istanbul.

The “Informatics Valley” project is to be built on an area of 3 million square meters. 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 minister stated that Turkey needed to increase the production and export in the high-tech industry in order for the country’s economy and social welfare to grow.

“We need to focus on establishing research and development firms, innovation, brands and design,” he said.
He also said that Turkey was “on the verge of a new breakthrough.”

In 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), which host companies developing high-tech products, increased from 2 to 59, while the number of research and development centers reached 184, according to Işık.

He added that 34 technology transfer offices, which research public interest in certain products or projects and strategize how to use this information, have been built in this same period as well.