Turkey's high-tech exports reach nearly $5B

ISTANBUL

Turkey's high-technology product exports reached nearly $5 billion in 2019, the country’s deputy industry and technology minister said on Tuesday.

Turkey established a major infrastructure and started to see its good results, Mehmet Fatih Kacir said at an event in Istanbul.

The share of research and development (R&D) in the country's GDP rose to 1% as of 2018, from 0.5% in 2006, he underlined.

"The private sector's share in the country's R&D expenses also increased to over 60% from 37% in the same period," he added.

While Turkey has 54,000 R&D staff in 2006, the number of the staff reached 172,000 as of 2018, he noted.

*Writing by Gokhan Ergocun