The Presidential Annual Program for 2023 ("Program") was published in the Official Gazette on 25 October 2022. The Program aims to determine Turkey's goals and policies for the year 2023.

The policies to achieve the goals in financial technology, science, technology, and space, intellectual property and data protection and information technologies are significant to be taken into consideration by our clients and peers.

The Program sets targets to achieve the main goals of a stable, competitive and robust economy, sustainable environment, democratization and indicates the policies and measures to be implemented to achieve such goals.

  1. Financial Technology

The Program plans to utilize international good practices in financial technology and support forming a secure financial technology ecosystem that provides equal opportunity to companies. In this context, subsequent to the opening of the Istanbul Finance Center, the Istanbul Finance and Technology Base will be established. Moreover, a Regulation Test Area (a sandbox practice) and an Industry Experiment Area will be established to test the implementation and results of the legislative amendments for the financial technology ecosystem.

According to the Program, Turkey will collaborate with other countries to develop alternative monetary and payment systems to be accepted in the international trade system. In this context, the Program aims to implement blockchain-based digital central bank money. In line with the second phase pilot findings of the Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development Project, the Central Bank will begin to test the use of the Digital Turkish Lira for payments and complete the integration of the Digital Turkish Lira systems with digital identity and FAST systems. For wholesale digital currency studies; research, development, and test studies will be carried out in cooperation with banks.

We expect that a regulation governing participation in venture capital funds and practices will be issued in 2023, to enable stronger finance resources for technology development.

The National Space Program ("NSP") was announced to the public to present Turkey's goals and policies in the field of space. The NSP aims to (i) reorganize satellite production and management, (ii) focus on scientific studies on space, (iii) increase social awareness and (iv) train the workforce. The Program includes the implementation of the NSP.

The Program aims for Turkey to become a regional data center for data storage, processing and transmission activities. Accordingly, the Program plans to establish and implement the necessary regulatory framework and incentive mechanisms.

The Program plans toestablish cooperation with other countries with which Turkey trades intensively, for the provision of cloud services, with the aim of developing data center sector. In this regard, the Presidential Digital Transformation Office will analyze the competitive maturity of domestic cloud service providers based on the variety of products and services they offer. The Office, with the support of the relevant organizations, will implement the Platform for the Dissemination of Domestic Cyber Security Products to ensure the development and exportation of domestic cyber security products.

An open-source software ecosystem will be developed to increase the domestic added value in the field of software and reduce the related security risks. In addition, the Program mentions the training of the qualified workforce in this field.

The Program states that national policies will be set for producing and disseminating artificial intelligence technologies.

To ensure dynamism and adapt to the global developments within the scope of information and communication technologies, studies forpolicy development continue in thesectors of electronic communication, information technologies and publishing.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.