Özet:

With regard to regional development, the countries have entered into the search for a new model over the past twenty years, and they have done work to bring innovation and knowledge to the forefront as an element of development. Nowadays, instead of traditional production factors such as labour and capital, there has been a mental turning where the importance of knowledge increases and the production process is intensely involved. The measurement of development in a country is closely related to the importance given to science and technology. In this point, the share of the research-development (R&D) spending in the purely domestic (GDP) has a great importance. In literature, more than 2% of this percentage is considered to be an important measure of the country’s development. According to the OECD’s “Basic Science and Technology Indicators 2009/2” report, the OECD’s 2008 average for R&D spending is approximately $30 billion, while the EU’s average is $10 billion. This figure in Turkey is below the OECD and the EU average with $7 billion in the year. In the 2009-2010 Global Competition Index report prepared by the World Economic Forum, Turkey is ranked 59th in terms of innovation, while the United States, Germany, Korea, Japan, Singapore and China are ranked top in terms of the same index.