Ministries join forces for science attachés abroad
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
The Foreign Minister Davutoğlu (L) and the Industry Minister Ergün exchange cooperation protocol documents in science diplomacy they signed yesterday. AA photo
Turkey will appoint science attachés to its embassies abroad, and assign volunteer science and technology representatives, Science, Industry and Technology Minister Nihat Ergün told reporters yesterday.“We’ll open the first science attaché’s offices at the consulates in San Francisco and Boston in the U.S., Japan, and Berlin, Germany and then later in Los Angeles, London, Beijing, Seoul, Moscow, and India,” Ergün said.
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu and Ergün signed a “diplomacy protocol” yesterday to ensure efficient cooperation between the two ministries.
Ergün said Turkey needs to integrate its work in science and technological fields with other countries.
“The attachés will facilitate activities such as reporting scientific and technological developments, developing areas of cooperation between Turkey and other countries, and meetings at which Turkish and foreign academicians and businessmen can network.” The science and technology representatives would work voluntarily to represent promote Turkey and develop networking relationships, he added.
Integral part of diplomacy
“We will be able to closely monitor any kind of development in science in any part of the world through scientific diplomacy,” Davutoğlu said. The new attachés will be an integral part of diplomacy, he said.
Turkey should use the information it obtains for commercial purposes, and raise total research and development expenditure to 3 percent of the gross national product, Ergün said, noting that science and technology are crucial to achieving the country’s target of having $500 billion in exports and becoming one of the 10 largest economies in the world by 2023, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the republic.
“We want to establish relationships with countries around the world based on a win-win approach and mutual benefits. We want to have a say in the world via trade, diplomacy, and cultural and scientific achievements, the elements of ‘soft power,’ not via military force and imperialism,” Ergün said.
Turkey will also launch a Science and Technology Council in order to bring the public and private sectors together in Turkey and abroad in the fields of science, technology, and innovation, Ergün said.
‘GROWTH MAY EXCEED 5 PCT’
ANKARA – Reuters
An eagerly-awaited incentives scheme, which is expected to be announced by the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan today, will take the current account deficit below government target, Industry Minister Nihat Ergün told Reuters late on April 3.
The official target to decrease the account deficit this year is 8 percent from the current rate of 10 percent. The target for 2014 is 7 percent.
Ergün also said that the economy may grow more than 5 percent this year.
The IMF forecasts Turkish economy’s 2012 growth at 2.3 percent.
