Istanbul Development Agency supports Finans Teknopark for Research & Development

Finans Teknopark A.Ş. (a joint investment of Borsa İstanbul and Boğaziçi University) and Istanbul Development Agency sign financial support agreement.

The parties and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek rang the opening-bell of Borsa İstanbul at the ceremony, organized on the occasion of the launch of the support.

As part of the vision to make Istanbul an international financial center, which is a major component of Turkey’s 2023 vision, Finans Teknopark project, initiated by Borsa İstanbul and Boğaziçi University, will receive financial support from Istanbul Development Agency. On this occasion, a signing ceremony and opening-bell ceremony was held at Borsa İstanbul on March 30, 2016.

The agreement signed between Finans Teknopark A.Ş. and Istanbul Development Agency is aimed at improving the Research & Development infrastructure in the financial sector, particularly the capital markets and banking; establishing a finance-oriented ecosystem; minimizing Turkey’s technological dependence in this field; and making the Agency contribute to Istanbul and the country’s economy as a whole.

Prior to the signing ceremony, an opening-bell ceremony was organized with the participation of all parties and Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek. Şimşek rang the opening-bell with the parties to the agreement, and expressed his wishes for a fruitful cooperation.

In addition to Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek, Istanbul Governor Vasip Şahin, Borsa İstanbul Chairman Dr. Talat Ulussever, Finans Teknopark Chairman and Borsa İstanbul CEO Tuncay Dinç, and Boğaziçi University President Prof. Gülay Barbarosoğlu participated in the ceremony.

In his speech at the signing ceremony, Finans Teknopark Chairman and Borsa İstanbul CEO Tuncay Dinç said that Turkey’s first finance technopark, supported by Istanbul Development Agency, has a special meaning for Turkey’s economic targets for the year 2023, and emphasized its importance for an economy that, instead of importing technology, exports technology and produces value added products and services.

Dinç said that the world is undergoing the fourth industrial revolution, which is defined by the Internet, artificial intelligence, robot technology, unmanned vehicles and so forth, and added, “Unfortunately, Turkey was involved in the process belatedly, and must take the necessary steps in the fastest and strongest way”.

Borsa İstanbul CEO Tuncay Dinç went on to say:
“Doubtless, the finance sector gets its shares from this transformation. Today, exchanges that fail to adapt their technology to today’s requirements lose their competitive power. Included in the projects aimed at catching up with this great transformation are the technology transfer through our partnership with Nasdaq; Finans Teknopark; and the company we established with Istanbul Technical University for developing financial technology software. With Finans Teknopark, we are creating a structure which will produce new software and hardware as well as support information technology infrastructure. Our target is to minimize the financial sector’s dependence on foreign countries for software, and cut the costs in the sector”.

In his speech, Dinç also said that Borsa İstanbul will allocate 1,000 m² of approximately 10,000 m² leasable office area for entrepreneurial companies on a free-of-charge basis, and that Finans Teknopark is a very important milestone in Istanbul International Financial Center project, where the government and capital markets stakeholders work in cooperation.

Finans Teknopark Deputy Chairman and Boğaziçi University President Prof. Gülay Barbarosoğlu said, “As you all know, a major target of Vision 2023 is to make Istanbul an international financial center. Certainly, this important vision could not be thought of without the technology leg. Consequently, Boğaziçi University and Borsa İstanbul came together, discussing what we can do towards this mission, and how we can contribute. We decided that a technopark, which is focused on finance and banking technology, convening the big players in this sector as well as the companies producing commodities and services for these companies and possible new entrepreneurs in this field, and which will be a center of attraction for not only domestic, but also foreign technology companies, will create significant contribution. Our aim is to take the lead in establishing thematic technoparks. We are confident that as soon as it starts operating, Finans Teknopark will work at full capacity, and become a technological epicenter where both domestic and foreign companies will compete to take part in. The applications we have received so far prove this prediction”.

Vasip Şahin, Governor of Istanbul represented Istanbul Development Agency at the signing ceremony. Şahin emphasized that the Agency handles the growth of economic welfare, solving social problems and protection of the environment with an integrated approach, and said that one of the three improvement axes defined in 2014-2023 Istanbul Regional Plan is to make Istanbul a city that has a say in the global economy, that produces high added value, and that has an innovative and creative economy. Governor Şahin went on to say, “Finans Teknopark project was converted into a coordinated project and a sample public sector-private sector-university cooperative model with the support of Istanbul Development Agency. I would like to once more emphasize the importance of the cooperation established today in achieving the target of ranking among the world’s 10 largest economies in 2023, when we will be celebrating the centennial anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. I do hope that Finans Teknopark, which we will establish all together, will make us take a further step towards this target”.

Thanks to this agreement, Istanbul Development Agency will provide financing support to Finans Teknopark project as part of the Coordinated Project Support. The strategic plans of both project partners, Borsa İstanbul and Boğaziçi University, envisage the establishment and development of Technology Development Zones. Istanbul Development Agency’s 2014-2023 Regional Plan envisages “providing attractive investment areas, free zones, technoparks and specialization regions for investors”. With these coinciding targets, a synergy is expected to be created, which will lead to a successful project.