TEKPOL: Conditions

1990s in the World and in Turkey

The following developments highlighted below shed light on the external conditions affecting the establishment of TEKPOL through the end of the 1990s:

• In one of the documents from TEKPOL Archive, there is an emphasis on the establishment of World Trade Organization in 1995 after the Uruguay Round. It acknowledges that this new system will be affecting the technology transfer process. By underlying industrial developments since the 1960s in Turkey, this document notes that Turkey has yet to produce "national technologies" in a sufficient manner. 
• In various documents from the TEKPOL Archive, the transition to knowledge society gets highlighted again and again as one of the main external developments in the world and stands as a rationale for establishing a center for science and technology policies in Turkey. 
• The emphasis on "technology-based economic development" in Turkey's Seventh Five-Year Development Plan (1996-2000) also appears as a justification point for founding a center towards building science and technology policies in the country.