Turkey to increase research and development funds to $60bn by 2023

Turkey plans to increase its federal budget allocation on research and development (R&D) to 60 billion U.S. dollars by 2023, local Daily News reported Wednesday. Turkish Technology Minister Nihat Ergun said during the Information Economy Global Forum in Istanbul that countries should not include information and technology funding as part of any budgetary cuts. "Cuts in R&D, along with the other items, may contribute to financial recovery in the short-term, however, countries need to protect their R&D and innovation targets in the medium and long term," Ergun stressed. Turkey was striving to create an atmosphere conducive to high production activity and a value-adding economy by increasing its R& D budget share to three percent, added the minister. Latest data shows that Turkish federal budget allocation to R&D has doubled in the last 11 years, reaching almost one percent.