Türkiye seeks to become tech development hub: Turkish tech minister

By Sevgi Ceren Gokkoyun and Dilara Zengin

NEW YORK (AA) – Türkiye aims to become a tech development hub and strengthen the position of the nation’s tech initiatives worldwide, the nation’s industry and technology minister told Anadolu at this week’s UN General Embassy in New York.

Mehmet Kacir said the visits to New York and the US in general by him and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have given them the chance to meet with heads of leading American firms, and this year, the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) held the Türkiye Investment Conference, attended by US-based business representatives.

“The economic stability we achieved in the last year and the results we’ve got though the Medium Term Program show the resilience of Türkiye despite all regional and global challenges we faced, as the gains in the defense and aviation industries, as well as our country’s research and development capacity, attract more investor interest,” said Kacir.

He said he spoke to Nick Ammann, vice president of global government affairs at Apple, discussing Türkiye’s potential contributions to the iPhone maker, urging Apple to invest in Türkiye’s human resources.

“Türkiye’s tech startups generate billions of dollars every year through their apps on the App Store, which we want to increase,” Kacir added.

He said that Türkiye’s actions towards digital and green transformation have been attracting investors, but a bigger incentive is the HIT-30 program, offering investors $30 billion in financing for high-tech sectors such as electric vehicles, battery and solar technologies, wind turbine advances, and more until 2030.

“The sectors this program focuses on are the ones that investors seek in order to diversify their investments, and as the pandemic made clear, when these sectors produce from a single production and supply point, the risk from this threatens the whole world, revealing the need for hubs spread out in multiple areas,” he stressed.

“We believe Türkiye can be one of the world’s important supply centers for renewable energy products and chips, and the government will provide global brands effective support through the program to register high gains in Türkiye’s high-tech production and export figures,” he added.

*Writing by Emir Yildirim in Istanbul