Bosnia and Herzegovina The BIT Forum, jointly organized by Turkey, started in Sarajevo.
The program was attended by Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Republic of Turkey's Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Republic of Turkey's Information Technologies and Communication Authority, Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yıldırım, Rector of the International University of Sarajevo, Haldun Koç, Ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Sarajevo, Predrag Kovac, General Manager of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Communications Regulatory Agency, and bureaucrats.
Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan said, "The cooperation between Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of information and communication technologies will continue to increase."
In his statement at the event, Sayan expressed that the forum was organized to enhance cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly in the field of information and communication technologies, and used the following statements: "The cooperation between Turkey and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the field of information and communication technologies will continue to increase. Communication infrastructure is a horizontal sector that affects all other sectors. From education to health, from agriculture to transportation, it significantly impacts every sector. A 10-unit investment in communication infrastructure is seen as a 1-unit increase in countries' gross national product (GNP)."
Deputy Minister Sayan: Friendship Road Highway Project
Emphasizing that Turkey has been able to produce and export domestic and national products with its national technology move in recent years, Sayan stated that Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey will conduct joint work in young population, cybersecurity, and communication infrastructure.
Referring to the Sarajevo-Belgrade Highway Project, which is also supported by Turkey, Sayan said, "This is also the road of friendship. This is a project that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attaches great importance to. It is important that the parts of the project come together piece by piece. Talks with Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia have reached a certain point to put them into operation as soon as possible."
BTK President Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu said in his speech, “As BTK, we attach importance to developing bilateral and multilateral cooperation with countries. In this context, we have signed memoranda of understanding with counterpart institutions in more than 30 countries for the purpose of establishing mechanisms that include sharing of information and experience between countries regarding the electronic communications and postal sector. Bosnia and Herzegovina, with which we have historical and cultural ties, is one of these countries, and a memorandum of understanding was signed between our Institution and the Bosnia and Herzegovina Communications Regulatory Agency on July 22, 2010, in Sarajevo, establishing bilateral cooperation.”
President Karagözoğlu: BIT is the Digital Backbone of Information Technologies
Karagözoğlu continued his speech by saying, “Bosnia and Herzegovina has recovered after the war, particularly in the field of information technologies, which is the investment area that provides the most added value, and has made great progress in this area. We are aware of this potential that continues to increase day by day. We see that the software developed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with high standards against low technology production costs has even attracted the attention of Silicon Valley. This success paves the way for even larger and higher-quality projects.”
President Karagözoğlu stated, “It is obvious that information and communication technologies, especially the internet, have become an indispensable necessity in our daily and social lives. Information technologies, whose share in GDP is increasing more and more, are present in our lives in areas such as e-government applications, education, trade, health, banking, communications, games, entertainment, and many more. Not only in individual use, but also in critical infrastructures, production, industry, design, R&D, and every stage of innovation, it stands out as the most important infrastructure. Next-Generation Network Services have gained significant importance due to the development, diversification of information technologies, and the increasing necessity of information and communication today. Next-generation network services are in a priority and strategic position not only for our country but also for many countries around the world. In many countries, plans and investments related to next-generation access networks are gaining momentum, and analyses are being made on how regulatory approaches, especially access regulation, will take shape in the near future. At this point, regulatory institutions also have important duties. Ensuring transparency and conducting necessary discussions with relevant stakeholders in the sector on plans for the establishment of these networks is of great importance for an effective transition to next-generation access networks. Therefore, there is a need for regulatory institutions to develop a predictable regulatory approach for all market players. Malicious uses and cyber attacks have increased, diversified, and spread parallel to the development of technology. These attacks now target not only individuals or companies but also states' reputations, creating economic and defense vulnerabilities and other extremely serious issues. In this sense, in Turkey, which has adopted the principle of 'cybersecurity for a secure world,' comprehensive cybersecurity activities are being carried out by our Ministry and BTK. The National Cyber Incident Response Center, namely USOM, undertakes important tasks for the development of our country's cybersecurity ecosystem. As BTK, together with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, we continue our cyber fight by developing projects worth millions of dollars with our own resources.”
Underlining that Turkey's electronic communications sector has developed rapidly in recent years, Karagözoğlu said, “In recent years, significant developments have been recorded in the electronic communications sector in our country. In this regard, I would like to share the most up-to-date information in our sector with you. When we look at the data of our country's electronic communications sector, it is seen that growth continues in our sector both in terms of revenues and subscriber numbers. While demand for mobile services and broadband internet continues to increase, there are significant increases in both subscriber numbers and data usage.”
Also mentioning 4.5G service, Karagözoğlu said, “Rapidly developing mobile technology has become one of the most important issues in our country, and in this context, 4.5G service provision started as of April 1, 2016, and since that date, there have been significant increases in subscriber numbers. With monthly mobile usage time, Turkey ranks first among European countries that can be examined, as in the previous period. Currently, there are a total of 73.8 million broadband internet subscribers in our country, 13 million fixed subscribers and 60.8 million mobile subscribers. The number of internet subscribers has increased by 8.5% compared to the same period of the previous year,” and concluded his remarks.