Balkanalysis.com

By Murat Caglar, Attorney-at-Law*

A new project called “E-Transformation Turkey” has been launched in Turkey. This project aims to bring about the social and economic transformation necessary for adapting to global competition, by means of determining all of the strategies and political approaches (including the politics of information and communication technologies) necessary for today’s information society – and finally for realizing these strategies in all of the activities in this area.

Preface

For a long time, most people in Turkey have been complaining about the slow-running procedures, long bureaucratic processes and general time lost in waiting for these procedures to finish. All these problems also give rise to a national resource loss, and cause Turkey to remain behind the developed countries.

In recent years, in the course of European Union, average Turkish citizens as well as politicians have become much more conscious about what is needed and what should be done to improve the situation.

Since Turkey is a candidate for EU membership and wants to follow the latest global technology developments, a lot of changes and amendments as well as new arrangements have been made until today by the government.

One of the most significant such projects is “E-transformation Turkey,” which is deemed to be one of the cornerstones for fostering Turkey’s modern development.

E-Transformation Turkey Project

Since there are so many things to be done throughout the country, starting with the most efficient ones is of course best. The 58^th Turkish Government headed by Mr. Abdullah Gul, (the current minister of foreign affairs) and the currently presiding 59th Government headed by Mr. Tayyip Erdogan thus issued an Urgent Action Plan to align all these issues.

In the Management Reform Section of this plan, the “E-transformation Turkey” project has been defined as one of the most important projects. It aims to accelerate the evolution of IT in Turkey and to coordinate information society activities, which were previously executed under different topics by different institutions.

The Prime Minister’s Circular, dated February 27, 2003 reflects on the objectives and principles of this Project. Pursuant to this Circular, the objectives of e-Transformation Project are as follows:

-Policies, laws, and regulations regarding ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) will be re-examined and changed if necessary, with respect to the EU acquis; e-Europe+ Action Plan, initiated for the candidate countries, will be adapted to Turkey.

-Mechanisms that facilitate the participation of citizens to decision-making process in the public domain via using ICT will be developed.

-Transparency and accountability for public management will be enhanced.

-Good governance principles will be put in place in government services through increased usage of ICT.

-CT diffusion will be promoted.

-Public IT projects will be coordinated, monitored, evaluated and consolidated if necessary in order to avoid duplicating or overlapping investments.

-The private sector will be guided according to the above-mentioned principles.

According to the government’s schedule, the Short Term Action Plan (STAP), which covers 2003-2004, will be deemed as the basis for this project.

The Responsible Bodies

The State Planning Organization (SPO), which is affiliated to the Prime Ministry, has been tasked with implementing this project. SPO is responsible for the whole coordination of the economic and social development programs throughout the country. It also executes allocating of funds to public investment projects and advises the Government. According to this plan, there are also affiliates for this project such as Prime Ministry, NGOs, and all public institutions.

Since the SPO has many tasks to do, it seemed better to form a separate unit assigned for this Project. So, a new unit called Information Society Department, existing within the SPO, has been formed and designated to coordinate the project. We believe that this department will play a crucial role in the success of this project.

In order to ensure the objectives stated above and to reach the success, an Advisory Board with 41 members has been appointed. This consulting body comprises the representatives of public institutions, non-profit organizations, and universities. The Board has its meetings chaired by Vice-Minister.

STAP in Brief

STAP focuses on forming interoperable and secure online information services. In addition, since the upper framework of this project is the Urgent Action Plan, the STAP is also in accordance with the purposes of the Urgent Action Plan as stated above. As we mentioned at the beginning of this text, because of Turkey’s EU candidacy, e-Europe 2005’s goals and harmonization of Turkish legislation to EU acquis has been taken into consideration.

In order to enlighten Turkey’s transformation from a labor-intensive society to an information society, the strategy of determining an “Information Society Strategy” has been developed. It encompasses every part of society and maximizes national benefits and is value added. STAP has also the following main topics:

-Legislation regarding regulatory and legal framework

-Technical infrastructure and information security

-Education and human resources for planning of required human capital

-E-Government for introducing electronic services to citizens without bureaucratic barriers

-Standards for integrated and interoperable services

-E-Health, which is one of the important thematic issues in E-Europe

-E-Commerce for the development of E-Business environment.

Final Notes

In consideration of the European Union, many Turkish citizens as well as the government are well aware of what is needed and what should be done. Also civic groups including business associations, economic and social foundations follow all the developments in this course, and are assisting the government in most of the projects. We believe and hope that Turkey will reach all the goals as soon as possible, to secure its future as an IT-savvy country in the today’s global economy and information society.

About the Author

Murat Caglar was born in 1977 in Istanbul. After graduating from the Marmara University Law Faculty in 1999 (LL.B.) with honors, he was admitted to the Master of Laws Programme in Private Law during the same year. At the same time Murat initiated his legal training at Suzer Holding Inc., where he became intensively involved with international projects in fields such as energy, tourism and telecommunications. In addition, he also drafted some memorandums on various legal and economic subjects such as gas distribution, foreign investments, etc.

In 2001, his article on “Intervention in and Notice of the Lawsuit, comparative of Turkish and Foreign Doctrine” was published in the Istanbul Bar Journal in the March 2001 Edition. In 2003, another article of his on “INCOTERMS” was published in the same journal. In addition, his master’s thesis on “Free on Board (FOB) Sales in Light of The Supreme Court Decisions” was approved by the Academic Jury by a unanimous decision.

After completing his internship in 2000, Murat was admitted to the Istanbul Bar in October 2000 and moved to Yamaner &Yamaner Law Offices which is a member of Interlaw. He worked for this Law Firm until 2002 and represented some international companies in their disputes and dealings in Turkey. He also had experience in Maritime Law, a topic a
lso discussed in his master’s thesis.

After his military obligation was fulfilled in 2002, Murat joined the Devres Law Office early the next year. This firm has broad international relationships and represents mostly foreign clients, including international financial institutions.

Finally, at the beginning of 2004, he founded a law firm named Caglar, Buke & Ogul with his partners in Istanbul, cooperating in some cases with Devres Law Office.

Murat Caglar practices mostly in the fields of International Business Law, Commercial Law, Intellectual Property Law, and Maritime Law. He is also interested in Information Technology Law and Arbitration.

He has been currently attending the Master of Laws Programmes in Law and Information Technology and Intellectual Property Law at Stockholm University and wants to focus on E-Contracts, E-Commerce, Telecommunications Law and E-Signatures as well as Trademarks and Patents.

He is also in charge of business development in favor of his law firm during his stay in Sweden. He is fluent in English and is also an officially-certified English translator, having an official certificate granted by Besiktas 6th Notary Public in Istanbul.