Minister of Industry and Technology Mehmet Fatih Kacır, who accompanied President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in New York to attend the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), spoke at the 4th Turkish-American Business World Meeting organized by the Anatolian Lions Businessmen Association (ASKON).
Emphasizing that Türkiye achieved a rare success story during the AK Party governments under Erdoğan's leadership, Kacır said that one of the most important dimensions of this was the gains achieved in the economic and commercial fields.
Kacır stated that Türkiye's annual exports, which were at the level of 36 billion dollars, have now exceeded 280 billion dollars, and that exports of products with medium and high technology levels have increased from 10 billion dollars to 116 billion dollars.
"WE WILL BE ONE OF THE TOP 10 DEFENSE INDUSTRY EXPORTER COUNTRIES"
Providing information about Türkiye's technology and R&D capacity, Kacır said that more than 13 thousand technology startups operate in 115 technoparks across the country, there are more than 1700 R&D and design centers and more than 310 thousand R&D employees work.
Kacır also stated that Türkiye has become a country that develops and produces critical technologies with its own means and can offer them competitively to the world markets.
Touching on the developments in the defense industry, Kacır stated that Türkiye is the 11th largest defense industry exporter in the world and said, "Hopefully, it is almost there. We will be one of the top 10 defense industry exporting countries next year." he said.
Kacır said that Türkiye meets more than 80 percent of its defense industry needs with systems developed and produced locally, that the country is the world leader in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and that it can produce more than 50 warships at the same time. Minister Kacır stated that Türkiye is a country that develops its own technologies in land vehicles, naval platforms, underwater vehicles, space and satellite systems, cyber and quantum systems and can meet its own needs.
"WE NEED TO WORK MUCH MORE FOR THE 100 BILLION DOLLAR TARGET"
Referring to the economic relations between Turkey and the USA, Kacır said, "The trade volume between Turkey and America has doubled in the last 10 years. But we need to work much harder for the 100 billion dollar target we set together." he said.
Kacır stated that strategic areas, as well as trade, are important in Turkey-US relations, and underlined that the recent dialogue between President Erdoğan and US President Donald Trump has opened the door to new collaborations, especially in strategic areas.
Stating that business people will make the most of this opportunity, Kacır said, "In the coming period, we will take our cooperation in critical technologies to higher levels and make the Turkey-US partnership much stronger in areas such as data centers and artificial intelligence." he said.
Kacır pointed out that they met with many business people within the scope of their visit to the USA, and stated that they explained the opportunities offered by Türkiye in the fields of investment, technology and R&D to the American business world, invited them to invest and cooperate in Türkiye, and that the interest in Türkiye is increasing every year.
"Türkiye CONTINUES ON ITS ROAD STRONG AS THE ISLAND OF PEACE AND STABILITY"
Drawing attention to the crises and conflicts in different parts of the world, Kacır stated that Türkiye continues its path strongly as an island of "peace and stability".
Kacır emphasized that Türkiye's unity and solidarity played a big part in this and said:
"The Turkish nation's strong support and support of our President has a great role in this, and they maintain their will to walk towards the future together by defending their independence in the strongest possible way. Hopefully, without compromising this will, we will complete the air defense system projects and the Steel Dome, which will make Türkiye reach its 'Turkey Century' goals together, raise the National Technology Move to much more advanced levels than today, and increase the speed and range of our rockets and missiles. No one can think of this." "With God's permission, we will reach a level of deterrence that will not even be able to harm the Turkish nation."
GLOBAL TURKS NEW YORK FORUM
Speaking at the Global Turks New York Forum organized by the Global Turks Foundation, Minister Kacır emphasized that he was pleased with the growth of the foundation's work and said, "I hope that it will reach much better points than today." he said.
Kacır pointed out that Turks living in Europe, Asia and different parts of the world, as well as the USA, evaluate education and career opportunities outside Turkey for different reasons, and said that these people continue to have close ties with Turkey.
Pointing out that Turks living abroad can make significant contributions to Türkiye, Kacır stated that, as the Ministry, they have the responsibility of bringing these contributions to Türkiye at the highest level.
Kacır explained that the success of Turks living abroad is a source of hope not only for the Turkish nation but also for people in different parts of the world.
“Türkiye HAS ACHIEVED A SERIOUS MOMENTUM IN THE FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY”
Drawing attention to the developments in the field of technology, Kacır stated that they defined Türkiye's claim to develop its own technology as "National Technology Move".
Kacır said, "We want to develop and produce critical technologies with our own means and offer them to the world competitively. We are working towards this goal." he said.
Stating that this approach is of strategic importance as well as economic gains, Kacır said that technology has become the main topic in all areas of life, not in limited areas.
Kacır pointed out that Türkiye has achieved serious momentum in the field of technology and stated that the country has young and qualified human resources.
Emphasizing that Türkiye has made significant progress in the defense industry, aviation and space technologies, Kacır noted that Türkiye has achieved things that only a few countries around the world can achieve in these fields.
“WE WILL ALLOCATE 2 PERCENT OF TOTAL PUBLIC INVESTMENTS FOR ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE PROJECTS”
Kacır stated that artificial intelligence is one of the most important technology topics of the next period and reminded that they shared Türkiye's Artificial Intelligence Road Map and 2030 targets with the public.
Stating that they benefited from the contributions of Turks living abroad in the process of preparing these targets, Kacır stated that they plan to allocate more resources to the field of artificial intelligence.
Kacır said, "We announced that we will allocate 2 percent of total public investments to artificial intelligence projects. We will increase our data center capacity to 4 times today's capacity in 2030 and we will realize a private sector investment of over 10 billion dollars in this field." he said.
Kacır, who informed that they discussed joint studies with investors in the USA in line with these goals, stated that they also prioritized human resources in the field of artificial intelligence.
Kacır said that they want to further integrate Türkiye's strong digital public infrastructure into artificial intelligence development processes.
“WE HAVE THE OPPORTUNITIES TO ACHIEVE OUR GOALS”
Stating that artificial intelligence has become a priority for all sectors, Kacır explained that it is important for Türkiye to successfully exit this transformation process.
Kacır said, "Türkiye must come out of this successfully. If we ask what one of our most important goals is, Türkiye should be one of the countries that managed to emerge victorious from this artificial intelligence revolution. This is a great breakthrough in history. It is probably still a bigger breakthrough than each of us thinks." made his assessment.
Pointing out that the gap between those who develop artificial intelligence technologies and the countries that cannot catch up with this transformation may widen in the future, Kacır stated that Türkiye should eliminate this risk and be among the countries that emerge victorious from the transformation.
Kacır stated that this is not easy, but Türkiye has the opportunities to achieve its goals thanks to its qualified human resources, strong infrastructure and sectoral wealth.
Emphasizing the importance of the contribution of Turks living abroad in Türkiye's achievement of these goals, Kacır said, "We need your mind, your ideas, your excitement, your love for Turkey, your love for your country. We need to be together." he said.
