ESIS Extension / Turkey / IS Promotional Activities / Master Report

Although government involvement in information society related projects is at a high level, government involvement in information society awareness actions is not at such a high level in Turkey.

Government is involved in many IS related projects such as networking and MIS (Management Information Systems) projects at ministerial or administration level, building infrastructure, etc. There is a project called Kamunet, which aims at coordinating these infrastructure building projects and MIS projects. Recently a Kamunet Higher Council is established for this coordination, where ministerial undersecretaries and other high level governmental representatives are members of the Council.

Internet Higher Council is another important informal semi-governmental consultative body aiming at promoting Internet penetration and coordination and policy making in Internet and telecommunication related issues. Internet Higher Council meets regularly. A major promotional activity of the Council is to organise the yearly Internet Week, where activities such as panels, discussion meetings, seminars and other similar activities take place. Another council established is Educational Technologies Higher Council lead by the Ministry of Education.

Another important governmental body is the Electronic Commerce Coordination Committee of the Undersecretary of Foreign Trade, which aims at identifying problems and their solution for widespread use of electronic commerce. Late in 1998 this committee prepared a report in this respect.

Universities and academia are very active in organising seminars and conferences in information technologies and related issues. Several regular yearly conferences are organise including ISCIS (International Symposium on Computer and Information Sciences), BAS (Computer Networks Symposium), TAINN (Turkish Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks Symposium) and SIU (Signal Processing Applications Symposium).

Conferences are also organised by other organisations such as NGOs and professional associations. Bilisim (Informatics) Conference and Fair, Open Systems Conference, Technology Congress are some of the conferences organised by such organisations each year. Bilisim series of conferences and expositions are major yearly events attracting over 30 thousand participants.

Many activities take place on the Y2K problem, including the preparation of a national action plan by State Planning Organisation DPT, conducting of a questionnaire by State Statistics Institute DIE, seminars organised by the Association of Turkish Informatics Industrialists TUBISAD, Turkish Informatics Foundation TBV and Hurriyet (a leading national journal), etc.

Turkish Informatics Foundation TBV and Turkish Informatics Association TBD are active in information society related promotional activities. Other NGOs involved actively in information society issues are the Association of Turkish Informatics Industrialists TUBISAD, the Association of Turkish Industrialists and Businessmen TUSIAD, which is a very influential organisation in Turkey, Technology Development Foundation of Turkey TTGV and the Association of Turkish Electronics Industrialists TESID.

The TUENA project, which is a Ministry of Transportation project to produce a long term (20 years) plan for the information infrastructure of Turkey was completed in late 1998. The project was done by TUBITAK in consultation with many public and private organisations.

Another plan that is under preparation by the State Planning Organisation is the Y2K Problem Plan for governmental and public institutions.

Turkey participates in the IST program of the European Commission. According to the special agreement made between DGXIII and TUBITAK the budget share of a Turkish partner will be paid by TUBITAK within a certain upper limit.

Higher Education Council YOK announced a program for trainer training for widespread IT education at university level. The program aims training a sufficient number of IT trainers that will be employed at universities to teach computer literacy courses.

Higher Education Council YOK also announced that the necessary legislation is being prepared to start virtual universities in Turkey.

4. Other main or important tools used for promoting the IS development or raising awareness

Other actions for promoting IS development related to education and awareness building include the Electronic Commerce Roadshow jointly organised by Turkish Informatics Foundation and Bogazici University and the announcement of the so-called New Learning Model of Turkish Informatics Foundation.

Information Technologies Group of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (the parliament) is an interesting initiative of the parliamentarians. It is an informal group of over 40 parliamentarians, aiming at increasing awareness among parliamentarians on information technology related issues. The group recently made two announcements, one to urge establishing a National Information Institute, and the other to declare information society as the goal for the country.

Please note that this report has been prepared under the sole responsibility of the ESIS II contractors.
It does not necessarily reflect the views of the Commision, nor does the Commission accept responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of information contained herein.
The ESIS Team of contractors welcomes any additional information or corrections.