In our region, where industrial development is relatively low compared to our other provinces, the “1 Million Software Developers Program” initiated by the Information Technologies and Communication Authority (BTK) will be expanded with the contributions of the Eastern Anatolia Development Agency in order to minimize regional inequality by enhancing the skills of our young population in the field of information technologies.
A protocol was signed to expand the “1 Million Software Developers Program” in the TRB2 region provinces. Ömer Abdullah Karagözoğlu, President of the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, who attended the ceremony, delivered a speech emphasizing the importance of software.
Defining the software sector as a mine waiting to be processed, Karagözoğlu said, “While a country's ability to produce its own weapons and vehicles is undoubtedly an important matter, there is something even more paramount: our ability to produce our own software. To become a country that produces software, in addition to educating our children from a young age, we need to launch projects that will ensure our long-term development—and we have done so. What makes the software sector important is that in today's world, all other sectors depend on software. Today, you need software to produce a computer, and you need it to produce a car as well. Even small merchants are developing their own applications thanks to software and conducting their sales. On a global scale, companies that want to compete and develop innovative applications are doomed to stagnate without the support of the software sector. In short, we can describe software as the locomotive of other sectors.”
President Karagözoğlu: Software is Now a Strategic Field
Stating that developed countries have designated software as a strategic field, Karagözoğlu said, “As the Information Technologies and Communication Authority, one of the most valuable aspects of our ongoing work to monitor developments related to the internet, guide the sector, and produce new policies is our efforts regarding the relationship our children establish with the digital world. We work to ensure that our children effectively and efficiently benefit from the advantages of the internet while finding ways to protect them from risks and threats, keeping them safe.”
Emphasizing that the institution will continue to conduct important work in this field, Karagözoğlu listed the actions to be taken under the signed protocol as follows: “As BTK Academy, we will take another step in this area and sign a very important cooperation protocol. With this project, which aims to expand the ‘1 Million Software Developers’ project in the eastern provinces, we will establish student clubs in the field of software at regional universities and pilot high schools affiliated with the Ministry of National Education, and provide training to these students through instructors recommended by our Institution. Additionally, our Institution will provide 6 GB of free internet package support to students receiving training in this regard. Our goal is to ensure that no one in our country remains without software knowledge. Just as we teach our children the alphabet when they start primary school and they begin to read and write; to read today's world, we must teach software.”
Emphasizing that software has gained great importance worldwide, Karagözoğlu concluded his speech by stressing the particular importance of being domestic and national in this field.