'Turkey must digitally transform its industry'

By Erdal Celikel

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey should digitally transform its industry to hike competitiveness, Turkish Development Minister Lutfi Elvan said on Thursday.

Elvan told Anadolu Agency that many big companies in the world did not have big buildings and factories, however they created more added value than factories with thousands of workers.

"We should certainly realize the industry's digital transformation to boost our competitive power," Elvan said.

Stressing that developments in information and communication technologies had effects on every field, Elvan said industry was one of the areas affected most by these developments.

He said new technologies and the use of big data enabled people to understand what products were in demand, and what particular country requested what kind of products.

He noted that digital transformation's key factor was organization.

"Many huge companies in the world don't have big buildings and factories but they create more added value than factories where tens of thousands of people work. So we should certainly realize the industry's digital transformation to boost our competitive power," Elvan remarked.

“At first our current industrial plants should be transformed. Secondly, new plants to be established should have an infrastructure that enables digital transformation in industry," he said.

The development minister also pointed out the need for qualified people, saying that the digital transformation in industry would be realized by humans.

"Robots will be playing an increasingly greater role in production in the near future, but this transformation would not increase unemployment if a qualified workforce could be formed," he said.

"We should organize training programs to train more qualified people, and departments in Turkish universities should be transformed and diversified accordingly.”

The fourth industrial revolution, known as Industry 4.0, offers technology and digital-based working conditions, which may have negative effects on the workforce in the near future. The Industry 4.0 approach is the new production concept of the future, reflecting the current trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies.