Policy Statement
by
Doctor Oktay VURAL
Minister of Transport and Communications of Turkey

Monday, 18 March 2002

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to begin my speech by expressing the importance of technology in our lives. The world has witnessed the exponential growth of mobile telephony and the widespread commercial deployment of the Internet. Today, the dazzling array of new technologies, services and applications has led to a digital age of information communications technology (ICT), in which access has become a key component of peoples’ life. Additionally, the "Digital Divide" concept has taken a considerable place in most countries agenda where it has not been a big issue in some countries up to now. However, public policy began to pay attention to the provision of Internet access and corresponding skill requirement on a broad base worldwide.

Digital Divide is a term increasingly used to describe the social implications of unequal access of some sectors of the community to information and communications technology and to the acquisition of necessary skills. Access to computers and the Internet, and the ability to effectively use this technology are becoming increasingly important for full participation in economic, political and social life. Access to online technologies is a necessary requirement for ensuring equity in access to the information economy, to enable governments to achieve electronic service delivery objectives and allow people to capitalize on the opportunities for economic growth offered by the information society.

Globalization and rapid technological change have made knowledge a critical determinant of competitiveness in the world economy. However, the knowledge revolution also brings with it, the threat of a widening gap between developed and developing countries with disparities in access to knowledge and information, reinforcing existing differences in capital and other sources. The exponential rise of communications technologies has also exacerbated the divide between low and high-income countries and the differences in access are considerable. Employers and employees are also facing up to this information revolution. Studies show that the information technologies have a positive effect both on working conditions and the quality of work as well as on the number of jobs over the coming years. Anyway, employers will have to adjust to the new informational context by modifying their human resources management.

In the context of bridging the digital divide, one should address oneself to the issues of the financial divide, the knowledge divide as well as the confidence divide. At international level, four elements in the digital divide should be taken into account: education, electricity, governance and culture. Of course, in the national level liberalization to reduce communication costs needs to be considered. This policy should be backed up with the creation of a universal service providing access to Internet. Moreover, the setting up and strengthening of independent national bodies shall prove its importance in consumer-friendly telecommunications market. On the other hand, the authorities should implement proactive policies with a view to increasing Internet use.

Formal education and life-long learning are at the core of this strategy. A country’s capacity to take advantage of the knowledge economy depends on how quickly it can become a ‘learning economy’. Learning means not only using new technologies to access global knowledge. So, in the context of "Bridging the Digital Divide" through education, the application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) offers a tremendous potential such as:

• Increased access to underserved areas through distance learning,

• Improved quality of teaching and learning, through appropriate software aimed at providing information, tools and interactive learning,

• Strengthened education management systems, through connecting educational administrations and providing real time data/indicators and,

• Shared knowledge among policy makers and other stakeholders through well-organized knowledge management systems.

Also, some concrete actions such as promoting Internet use, investing in human resources and developing the Internet that is not too expensive, quicker and better protected must be taken into consideration as well. In public level; there must be taken some measures such as:

• Multiplying Internet access points in schools and libraries,

• Offering low-interest loans for public equipment in rural areas and poor urban districts,

• Taking steps to bring down equipment prices (lifting taxes, providing subsidies) and low interest loans for low-income families,

• Organizing free web training sessions for the disadvantaged,

• Offering free Internet addresses to all schoolchildren,

• Fostering competition in telecommunications to encourage low charges and

• To courage unmetered Internet access tariffs.

ICT can help to bridge all the other divides, by helping to solve the basic problems of developing countries when it is fully integrated into government policies and the social and commercial life.

Turkey, with the help of fiscal, social security and the other structural reforms, has promoted its level in the developed countries league and going to do so in the long term. In spite of the variation between districts parallel to urbanization, the great modernization of the telecommunications structure in Turkey starting from 1980 ’s is a sign of the evolution of The Information Age in Turkey. The up-to-date digital switching boards and daily expansion of the digital mobile GSM network of Turkey are promising guarantees of Turkey’s ability to prove its competence and skills in the telecommunications sector. In comparison with the rest of the developing and developed markets of the world, Turkey is a leader in investing in the telecommunications infrastructure per GDP. With 19 million PSTN subscribers and approximately 19 million of GSM subscribers, the telecommunications access paths per one household are 2.6 (260lines/100households), which is one of the highest rates in the world.

Finally, I would like to express that; the digital divide is the central issue of the information society. The social, economic, cultural and political changes brought about by the rise of the information technologies cannot be grasped if parts of the world population are being excluded from this huge trend.

The digital divide concerns governments, the private sector, multilateral organizations, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and everyday citizens. I believe that, together, we have the power to close digital divide by uniting our resources under a common framework designed to foster the growth of information and communications technologies worldwide.

Thank you very much.