27.10.2015
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan honored the 4.5G IMT-Advanced Authorization Ceremony organized by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.
“I wish that the signing ceremony of the authorization documents regarding IMT services and infrastructures be auspicious for our country, our nation, and our sector.
I believe that this service, which will begin to be offered starting from April 2016, will make a significant contribution to our country's development, growth, and achievement of its goals.
At the same time, Turkey is a country with a strong democracy and economy, high potential, where very large projects continue to be implemented and very important services are successfully carried out.
The problems occupying our agenda are troubles not only for us but also for the entire region, Europe, and the world.
Given our geography and historical responsibilities, the events that are happening naturally concern us more than anyone else.
However, none of these are unique to us.
As you are following, Europe, which has turned a blind eye to the events in Syria for more than four years, has been forced to face this problem in the face of the wave of migration at its doorstep.
European countries, which until yesterday told us “you deal with this issue” and gave us only verbal support, have now come to the point of “what can we do together to solve the problem.”
I believe that much faster progress will be made in the solution process of the Syrian issue in the coming period.
While dealing on the one hand with developments in Syria and Iraq, on the other hand with events in our northern region especially in Ukraine, with the betrayal of parallel state structures, and recently with terrorist organizations, we have never set aside our goals, projects, and works.
We are closely following these events on one hand and advancing step by step towards our goals on the other.
Even the developments in the last few weeks alone will suffice to show Turkey's stance and progress.
On October 3, we launched the Bayraktar Amphibious Ship, one of the most successful projects of our defense industry.
On October 14, we inaugurated the Sumitomo Rubber Tire Factory in Çankırı, a Japanese investment of 516 million dollars.
On October 19, in Istanbul, we witnessed the 4.6 billion Euro credit financing agreement provided by our public and private sector banks for our new airport under construction.
Our growth figures continue to exceed expectations with 2.3% in the first quarter of 2015 and 3.8% in the second quarter.
In the past 13 years, 149 billion dollars of international direct investment has entered our country.
Only in July of this year, with 3.4 billion dollars of international investment inflow, we set a new record on a monthly basis.
The international direct investment figure for the first eight months of 2015 reached 12 billion dollars, an increase of 36% compared to the same period last year.
Today, with the signing ceremony of the 4 billion Euro (IMT) authorization documents, we are all experiencing a new joy and excitement together.
Upon my proposal, the 4G tender was revised to 4.5G, which also covers the infrastructure for 5G.
The number of mobile phone subscribers in our country, which was 14.7 million in 2000, exceeded 73 million as of last month.
Today, nearly 3 million machines in our country are communicating with each other through mobile networks.
All these developments have increased the market size of Turkey's information sector to 70 billion liras as of the end of last year.
In terms of employment, the sector is in an important position with over 103 thousand employees reached at the end of last year.
Mobile phones, computers, internet... These have turned from luxuries into necessities.
In this race where the whole world is advancing at full speed, it is impossible for us to fall behind.
Even if not for ourselves, we are obliged to be at the forefront in this race for future generations.
Smart homes, smart cities, smart systems that carry revolutionary quality in all sectors from energy to logistics, from banking to education, will undoubtedly open new horizons for all of us.
Thus, our country will also acquire the infrastructure to develop, produce, and export products suitable for subsequent processes.
Once again, I wish the (IMT) authorization documents to be auspicious for our GSM companies.