The 38th Informatics Congress of the Turkish Informatics Association was hosted by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority.
This year's program, themed “Digital Economy in the New Normal,” discussed the impact of the pandemic on technology. Dr. Ömer Fatih Sayan, Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, who attended the opening of the program, began his speech by giving good news. Sayan stated that TÜRKSAT 5B satellite would be launched into orbit from the SpaceX base between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. on the morning of December 19, saying, “Our satellite, which will increase our country's data communication capacity provided via satellite by 15 times, will have a Ka-Band total capacity of 50 Gbps. Our 5B satellite, which will serve our country for 37 years, will be the most powerful in our satellite fleet until our 6A satellite takes its place in space. The 'Domestic Industry Contribution Program' was implemented on our 5B satellite. Two communication equipment produced in our country were integrated into the Türksat 5B satellite. Thus, for the first time, equipment whose design and production are entirely domestic will be sent into space on a commercial communication satellite. Insha'Allah, we will also launch our 6A satellite into space in 2023. Our 6A satellite will be the first satellite that is domestic and national, meaning its design, software, and production are carried out by us. Thus, we will be one of the 10 countries in the world that can produce its own satellite,” he said.
Emphasizing that our country is progressing on the path to becoming stronger every day, Sayan said, “Production is a fundamental component of a strong economy. In the new normal, I wholeheartedly believe that we will achieve our 2023 targets by producing even more in collaboration with all our stakeholders. As our President stated in recent days, 'We are in an economic war of independence. Instead of the vicious cycle of high interest-low exchange rate, we are determined to do what is best for our country with our investment, production, employment, and export-oriented economic policy.' Just like for the past 20 years, today and tomorrow, we must always trust our President and follow the decisions he makes.”
President Karagözoğlu: Digital Transformation is No Longer a Choice but a Necessity
Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, which hosted the congress, also spoke about the effects of digital transformation. Karagözoğlu said, “The pandemic we are in has deeply affected the whole world and brought about the concept of the 'new normal,' into which we pack so many things today. Changes that were expected to take many years have happened rapidly, opening doors to digital transformation in every field.”
Emphasizing that digital transformation is no longer a choice or option but an absolute necessity, Karagözoğlu stated, “Just like in the rest of the world, in our country too, digital transformation is causing changes in people's daily lives, behaviors, and habits. In fact, the youth we can call digital natives are already ready for any kind of change in the technology field since birth. However, middle-aged people, companies, and states that we can call digital immigrants are making great efforts to adapt to this concept and lifestyle.”
President Karagözoğlu also spoke about 5G. Underscoring that countries can only grow stronger through production, Karagözoğlu said, “Especially in high-tech sectors such as communications and defense, production with domestic and national capabilities is among our primary goals. To accelerate R&D studies in our country, in our 3G authorization and continuing with 4.5G authorization works, we had imposed obligations on our operators to use certain percentages of domestic products in the network. We are conducting these works with our relevant stakeholders for 5G as well. However, our goal now is for this ratio to be entirely domestic and national as much as possible. Our aim is to transition to 5G with our domestic and national capabilities and at the same time ensure that these products can be exported. We see that we have achieved concrete outputs within the scope of the 'End-to-End Domestic and National 5G Project' carried out with this goal,” he shared.