Only way to success in the new reality: “Gaining Digital Resilience”

The “Turkey on the Road to Digitalization” report, prepared by the Digital Turkey Platform together with KPMG Turkey, has been announced. According to the report, there is no time to waste anymore for digital transformation. The only way to be successful in the new reality is to gain digital resistance.

The Digital Turkey Platform, which was established with the cooperation of TBV, TÜBİSAD and TESİD, analyzes the digitalization trends in the report prepared for the second time and makes recommendations regarding the roadmap and targets for Turkey. “The unexpected entry of potentially small risks such as the pandemic into our lives shows that there is no more time to waste on digital transformation that will help us create an efficient, effective and sustainable business that can weather future storms.” says the report.

According to the report, both state institutions, private sector and individual citizens need to develop digital resilience in order to be successful in the new reality and to use it against a different global threat. In the report announced by DTP, “Institutions with a completely data-centric strategy have rapidly surpassed the transportation, entertainment, tourism and financial services sectors in recent years. However, this should not mean that traditional institutions and organizations cannot keep up with data-centric leaders. As it is realized that the large amount of data being produced and collected requires a new mindset to remain competitive, organizations also need to invest in the democratization of data, which is the most important issue for digitalization.”

This year, the report prepared in cooperation with KPMG Turkey was announced at an online meeting. The opening of the meeting was made by Digital Europe General Director Cecilia Bonefeld Dahl and Presidency Digital Transformation Office President Ali Taha Koç. Ali Taha Koç emphasized that technology is on the agenda more than ever and said that the report prepared under the leadership of the Digital Turkey Platform will make a significant contribution to developing ideas. Stating that “We are going through a period similar to the industrial revolution due to developments in digitalization.”, Koç said that they are working to be on the winning side. Koç contuined as:

“Policies regarding digitalization focus on improving data-driven innovation. In this process, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, internet of things, block chain, robotic process automation and edge computing are developing by feeding each other. We see that artificial intelligence technologies have come to the fore in recent years in terms of developing data-based innovation. Many countries have created and implemented national policy and strategy documents on artificial intelligence. Almost all stakeholders agree that our country also needs such a long-term strategy. In this context, we have been working intensively for the last year to create the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy to reveal the road map of our country in the field of artificial intelligence. We have come to an end in this work that we carried out with the Ministry of Industry and Technology and all other ministries. When the strategy document becomes official, we will have put forward a long-term road map. Another point is about cyber security. While digitalization offers very important opportunities for socioeconomic development, it also brings some serious risks due to cyber security problems. We need to create effective protection mechanisms against cyber threats.”

2021 will be the year of data and artificial intelligence

Digital Europe General Director Cecilia Bonefeld Dahl explained that digitalization makes companies more durable, and that digitalized sectors grow faster. Expressing that Covid-19 reveals the importance of connectivity, Dahl noted that investment in digital is the biggest agenda item in Europe. Dahl stated that the European Parliament allocated 20% of the 750 billion Euro pandemic package to digital, according to the priorities of the investment plan ‘Digital education, digital health services, digital transformation, innovation and Green Agreement, digitalized SMEs, connectivity and infrastructure’.

A new life perspective

KPMG Turkey Technology Sector Leader Gökhan Mataracı presented the report and emphasized that a new life perspective emerged for the whole world after Covid-19 and that the technological development expected to take place in a long period began to be used in a very short time. Stating that they prepared a roadmap for ‘Digitalizing Turkey’ in their work with the Digital Turkey Platform, Mataracı said that: “The main building blocks of Turkey’s digital transformation journey consist of a series of developments ranging from RPA to smart automation, from cloud strategy to internet of things and connectivity, from cyber security to smart cities. The age of smart automation and online learning will provide both increased technological awareness and cultural development. Smart automation, data and analytics, smart cities will be important topics for the digital Turkey of the future.”

2025 Turkey Objectives

Education (E-government usage rate reaching 80%)

Connectivity

Cloud computing (Usage rate reaching 60%)

Increasing use of digital services

Equality in opportunity

Adopting entrepreneurial approaches

2030 EU Objectives

50% of SMEs should use big data analysis, currently this rate is 12%

30% of SMEs should do business at more than one European border, currently this rate is 8.4%

84% of teachers should feel ready to use digital technologies, currently this rate is 40%

10% of research and innovation should be made in ICT sectors, currently this rate is 6.9%.

75% of European citizens should use e-government, currently this rate is 56%

6% of working women should be in the ICT sector, currently this rate is 1.4%

Until 2025, 25% of unicorn investments should be in Europe.