Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Industry and Technology, who met with the students in the programme hosted by Akdeniz University Antalya Technopark, said: “We want to spread the technology move all over Türkiye. We want Antalya to be one of these cities after Istanbul and Ankara and for you to be the pioneers of this.”

The Minister of Industry and Technology Mr. Mehmet Fatih Kacır, first visited the office of Akdeniz University Rector Prof. Dr. Özlenen Özkan. Antalya Governor Ersin Yazıcı and Antalya deputies also accompanied the visit. Then, Minister Fatih Kacır visited the R&D building of Antalya Technopark. Antalya Technopark General Manager Dr. İbrahim Yavuz informed Minister Fatih Kacır about the investments of Antalya Technopark. Afterwards, Minister Fatih Kacır visited the offices of technopark companies, especially TAI operating in Antalya Technopark, and talked with the company's employees and students. Minister Kacır said he was very happy to see the students, and said, “We want to spread the technology move all over Türkiye. We want Antalya to be one of these cities after Istanbul and Ankara and for you to be the pioneers of this.” The students said they were very happy with the opportunities they had been given and that they were trying to make the best use of these opportunities. Minister Fatih Kacır met with the students in an interview.

The Industry and Technology Minister Fatih Kacır, who was in Antalya for the TÜBİTAK Skywatching Festival, said that he wanted to meet with the students in particular. Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Industry and Technology, said that technoparks have a very special place in Türkiye's journey to produce high technology, develop critical technologies with its own resources and compete with the world. Noting that Türkiye has built a huge R&D ecosystem over the past 20 years, Minister Kacır said, “There are technoparks behind this R&D ecosystem. I always say this when I meet young friends. When I was a university student, I visited all the technoparks in the early 2000s. At that time, there were 3-4, but now we have 96 technoparks.”

Minister Kacır said: “Türkiye's human resources in R&D and innovation have increased very rapidly. While it was 30,000 in the early 2000s, it has now increased to 222,000. We have established and expanded R&D and design centres. The private sector in Türkiye has more than 1500 R&D and design centres. We have built up a large R&D and innovation infrastructure and network together. This was, of course, due to the government's emphasis on this area. With the support and incentives, we provide in this area, we have ensured that the private sector has embraced the concept of R&D. At the beginning of the 2000s, R&D expenditure in Türkiye was very low and the share of R&D in our national income was 5 per thousand. If we consider that today's national income is much lower than it was then, it is possible to realize that raising this level to 1 per cent would actually increase the total R&D expenditure by 9-10 times. Therefore, a major R&D breakthrough has actually been made in the last 20 years. Here are the success stories told with great pride by each of the companies in the technoparks we visited, they are in fact part of this breakthrough.”

He continued his words as follows. “We are trying to provide many incentives for both our employees and the companies in the technoparks. We will try to further develop this ecosystem, and our vision is as follows. We need to promote this R&D breakthrough not only in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, but all over Türkiye. Especially Antalye is one of the cities that we can count on after these three big cities. We want to increase the momentum in this province. In this respect, the recent activities of Antalya Technopark are valuable for us. In other words, I would like to thank our rector, our general manager, and his team members, increasing qualified employment, increasing qualified technological development and production activities, with their own investments and private sector investments on the one hand.” At the end of the interview, Akdeniz University Rector Prof. Dr. Özlenen Özkan presented a gift to Mehmet Fatih Kacır, Minister of Industry and Technology.