Update October 1999: Turkey

1. Organisational awareness aspects of information society

Several conferences and workshops are organised in this period. Of particular interest were two conferences organized by international conference organizers, one by Euroforum, UK, the other by SMI, UK, in Istanbul on Turkish telecoms. Another important communication event was the information day organised by TUBITAK and Turkish Informatics Foundation on EC programs.

Bilisim 99, the biggest annual IT event, was delayed in the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake. It will now take place in December 1999.

2. IS national / regional strategies and action plans

Turkish Grand National Assembly enacted a new law changing an article of the Income Tax Law to identify software as an intellectual property and programmers as intellectual property holders and to allow income tax exemption for the distribution, publishing and commercialisation of computer programs.

3. Information content stimulation

An interesting content stimulation activity in this period was the establishment of a virtual exhibition and fair.

4. Particularly interesting and/or innovative actions / initiatives

Turkish Grand National Assembly made a change in the constitution to allow the use of international referees in disputes arising from contracts involving international partners. It is expected that this change will promote foreign investment in several sectors in Turkey including energy and telecommunications.