Speaking at a meeting of MÜSİAD, Erdoğan said: "High on our agenda are digital economy, digital trade, digital Turkey and future cities. Turkey’s future will be shaped by discussions to be held here in this meeting. As a result of the importance we attach to this issue, we founded the Digital Transformation Office as directly affiliated to the Presidency during our country’s transition to the Presidential System of Government."

Noting that the Vizyoner’19 program is mainly focused on such topics as digital economy, digital trade, future cities and national technology initiative, Erdoğan said: "High on our agenda are digital economy, digital trade, digital Turkey and future cities. Turkey’s future will be shaped by discussions to be held here in this meeting."

"we are adamant about keeping up with the digital world"

"As a result of the importance we attach to this issue, we founded the Digital Transformation Office as directly affiliated to the Presidency during our country’s transition to the Presidential System of Government," stated Erdoğan, and added: "Our objective is to closely follow and support the efforts in all the relevant areas such as cyber security, national software, metadata, artificial intelligence and the protection of critical infrastructure."

Erdoğan continued: "No matter how fast we are in digitalization; technology is always way faster than us. The number of broadband internet subscribers in our country stood at 3 thousand when we first came to power. Today, however, there are over 75 million broadband internet subscribers in Turkey. Likewise, the number of mobile phone subscribers has risen from 23 million to more than 82 million. The length of fiber-optic line was 81 thousand kilometers back then, having now exceeded 364 thousand kilometers."

Underlining Turkey’s determination to keep up with the digital world, Erdoğan further stressed that Turkey takes revolutionary steps also in space industry, and said: "We have founded the Turkish Space Agency.  Having already launched TURKSAT 4A in 2014 and TURKSAT 4B in 2015, we are now planning to send to space TURKSAT 5A next year and TURKSAT 5B in 2021. More importantly, we will have put into service Turkey’s indigenous communications satellite TURKSAT 6A by 2022." (ILKHA)