Yeni Safak – Türkiye’s nationwide high-tech education initiative, the Fatih Project, has attracted tech giant Google’s attention. Visiting Türkiye’s Minister of Science, Industry and Technology, Nihat Ergun, in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Google Vice President Vinton Cerf suggested that the use of company’s open-source products would be beneficial for the huge project, which includes the manufacturing and distribution of millions of tablets.
“The open-source operating system that Google has developed is well suited to the Fatih Project’s needs with its flexible nature..”, Cerf said about Google’s Android operating system.
Inviting Google to invest in Türkiye’s own ‘Silicon Valley”, officially called “IT Valley”, to be established in Gebze in the northwestern province of Kocaeli, Minister Ergun informed the company’s Vice President about Türkiye’s investment incentives for research and development activities.
“We plan to begin allocating land to investors in the “IT Valley” by the next year. We expect Google to take its place there..”, Ergun said at the meeting. “Türkiye has been increasing the budget for R&D for the last decade. The Turkish government aims to increase its budget allocation for research and development (R&D) to 3 percent of the country’s GDP by 2023.”, the minister noted. Investors in IT Valley will benefit from a range of incentives tailored to facilitate R&D activities.
Estimated to cost around USD 7 billion, the Fatih Project involves millions of primary education students, 600,000 classrooms and 40,000 public schools throughout Türkiye, aiming to increase the overall quality of education in public schools by integrating high-tech equipment into the education system.