April 5, 2016
The Microsoft Ankara Summit 2016 took place. Attendees included Minister of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication Binali Yıldırım, AK Party Deputy Chairman and Erzurum MP Recep Akdağ, Acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Transport, Maritime Affairs and Communication Dr. Özkan POYRAZ, Acting Deputy Undersecretary Orhan Birdal, Chairman of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, and Microsoft Turkey General Manager Murat Kansu.
At the summit held in Ankara on April 5, detailed information was presented on digital transformation in the public sector, cybersecurity, innovation, and education solutions. Minister Yıldırım, who delivered the opening speech of the summit, said: "Whatever we do, wherever we go, information technology continues to be our greatest companion."
Minister Yıldırım, providing information on Turkey's information structure and usage rates, elaborated on the topic as follows: "Today, Turkey has increased its fiber network from 80 thousand kilometers to 270 thousand kilometers, but we do not consider this sufficient. Considering Turkey's geographical position, I believe there is a need to go even further, taking into account the increased use of these communication networks, developing information technologies, and information and communication products. In broadband usage, Turkey has reached 49 million from 20 thousand. This rate is above the world average and close to the European Union average. Mobile subscriber numbers have exceeded 74 million. Since April 1, we have also put the next-generation 4.5G communication system with LTE infrastructure at the service of our citizens. Our internet user rate, which was around 6% just 10 years ago, has now reached 56%. In this regard, we are 15% above the world average, but we do not consider this sufficient. The number of internet service providers in Turkey has increased by around 8-10 times. E-government has been in operation since 2009, and approximately 27.5 million citizens continue to receive services through the e-government gateway using the information infrastructure. Today, 1,425 different services can be provided through the e-government gateway. In the coming months and years, this number will increase further, and we see that Turkey will take one step closer to its goal of becoming an information society. E-commerce has risen from 900 million to 20 billion in just a few years, and we have reached a striking figure in the revenue growth based on information and communication technologies over the past 10 years; it has risen from 20 billion TL to 76 billion TL today."