Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Pursuing Sustainable Development Goals: The Performance of Türkiye in the Centennial of the Republic, Billur Engin Balın,H. Dilara Mumcu Akan,Ferda Karagöz Özenç,Özcan Garan, Editör, IU Press, Bloomington (IN), USA , İstanbul, ss.403-454, 2024
The objective of this study is to evaluate Türkiye's
standing in Research and Development (R&D) activities throughout the 2000s
through a comparative approach, in line with the aims of Target 9.5 within
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9. This target seeks to stimulate innovation
and significantly raise the number of research and development professionals
per one million individuals. Furthermore, it endeavours to enhance both public
and private expenditures in research and experimental development. The data
analysis reveals that despite a substantial increase from 2000 to 2021, Türkiye
still lags behind the majority of selected countries in terms of the proportion
of gross domestic R&D expenditure (GERD) in GDP and the number of
researchers per one million inhabitants, both of which are crucial indicators
for monitoring progress towards Target 9.5. Furthermore, based on the 2021
data, Türkiye ranks behind most of the selected countries in terms of the
proportion of business enterprise (private) R&D expenditures (BERD),
government (public) R&D expenditures (GOVERD), and higher education R&D
expenditures (HERD) to GDP. Between 2000 and 2021, there was a significant
increase in the business enterprise sector's contribution to GERD, reaching
70.7%, whereas the higher education sector's share (23.7%) declined by more
than half. Furthermore, Türkiye falls behind most selected countries in terms
of the government's share (5.6%) in GERD. The percentage of total researchers
employed in the business enterprise sector (61.8%) in Türkiye has significantly increased since
2000, while the share of both the higher education (4.2%) and government (34%) sectors in this employment
has decreased by more than half. Business enterprise (private) R&D
expenditure (BERD), which not only forms the largest share but
also contributes significantly to Türkiye's overall gross domestic R&D
expenditure (GERD) increased from 1.5 billion dollars in 2000 to 21.1
billion dollars in 2021, with its share in GDP rising from 0.16% to 0.80%
during the same period. Investments in research and development (R&D)
within the manufacturing industry play a crucial role both in the
conversion of R&D investments into tangible, fruitful innovations and in advancing
both Target 9.2 and Target 9.5 under Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9. The
most recent data reveals that the manufacturing industry accounts for 57.1% of
the total R&D expenditures within the business enterprise sector. Türkiye
has the highest rate of business enterprise R&D (BERD) for the computer,
electronics, and optics sector (14.7% in 2020) among high-tech industries such
as pharmaceuticals and aerospace, compared to the chosen countries. However,
Türkiye has one of the lowest market shares in the exports of these high-tech
industries among the selected countries. Consequently, Türkiye consistently
maintains a negative foreign trade balance for all of these sectors in the
2000-2020 period. The challenge lies in the complex process of transforming
Türkiye's consistent growth in R&D spending and the presence of highly
qualified R&D professionals, in line with Target 9.5 of Sustainable Development
Goal 9, into enhanced productivity and expanded export shares in high-tech
industries. This process involves effectively converting R&D investments
into concrete and fruitful innovations. This transition can be monitored by examining
indicators such as the number of patent applications per million inhabitants.
In 2021, Türkiye had a mere 8.73 patent applications per million inhabitants
submitted to the European Patent Office (EPO), while in the same period, the
Netherlands had 375.18, Germany had 311.20, and Poland had 13.83 patent
applications per million inhabitants. This data indicates that if we take
R&D as a measure of knowledge input and patents as an indicator of
knowledge output, as is often done in the literature, Türkiye faces difficulties
in efficiently converting this input into tangible output.