Turkey is developing its own GPS navigation app to replace foreign applications such as Google Maps, Turkish Industry Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır announced at the TEKNOFEST aviation, space and technology festival in Istanbul, where the minister underlined Turkey’s drive for innovation and technological independence.
“We have prioritised the development of our own chips. Currently, most of us use international map applications, but I am confident that in the near future we will navigate using our own map application developed in Turkey,” Minister Kacır told CNN Türk, as reported by Hürriyet, recalling that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently declared “You’re holding a piece of Israel if you have a cell phone”.
According to the minister, the new national navigation application will use public data – including information on traffic, roads, risks, accidents, etc – which will be made available to Turkish technology companies through a collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. “Our goal is to achieve results (developing the app) in 2026. We have already launched the programme. We are collaborating with the Ministry of Transport to make this data available for Turkish business initiatives,” he explained.
Kacır also emphasised the progress Türkiye has made in recent years in multiple fields, including defence, energy, agriculture, transport or healthcare, and highlighted that the TEKNOFEST festival itself, which has been held since 2018, represents a public platform for showcasing Turkey’s growing technological capabilities in all fields.
“Twenty years ago, our R&D human resources in Turkey amounted to 29,000 people; today, this figure is as high as 300,000: in other words, it has increased tenfold… In the 20th century, we were not a country that excelled in aviation; but in the 2000s, we focused on the technology of the future and became a leader in avionics technology. Türkiye should also produce its own mobile phone and focus on areas where we can be competitive. I believe that mobile phones will undergo a transformation with Artificial Intelligence. Artificial intelligence is advancing so much that we can perform many tasks with a single conversation. Mobile phones will be transformed into next-generation AI devices, and we are already preparing for that,” he concluded.
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Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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