Istanbul, Turkey - April 19-21, 2004

The World Bank & Innovation Support. The World Bank has supported many projects related to building Innovation Systems including Industrial Technology, and Science and Technology System for the past several decades (please see Working Paper on "Science and Technology", February 2004). Since the 1980s, this has included some 50 projects involving almost $4.5 billion in Bank financing, with individual projects ranging from $3 million to $300 million, and mean project size of about $58 million. The projects included stand-alone comprehensive operations as well as smaller and sometimes components within broader reform programs. In this context, the Bank has been emphasizing private sector participation in innovation technology development, shifting the emphasis away from a public sector driven and largely inefficient approach to one that is driven by the needs of the industry and the economy. Successful examples of innovation operations include Korea, India, Indonesia, Turkey, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, amongst others.

Turkey Experience. One of the show-cases of successful innovation policies and investments in ECA Region is Turkey, where the Turkish Government has been active to promote innovations and improve technology development infrastructure in the country in order to help Turkish firms to be able to compete internationally, and where the World Bank has financed two large Technology Development Projects since 1990 (Technology Development Project- I and Industrial Technology Project). The Scientific and Technology Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) has been an active player in pursuing the technology development agenda through the projects financed by the Bank and other donors, as well as taking lead on behalf of the Government in developing strategy and formulating long-term vision on science & technology issues. A draft agenda for this workshop is attached

Themes for this session will include:

(i) Reinforce Entrepreneurial/Innovation Culture

• National policies and business systems
• Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) regime
• Metrology, Standards, Testing and Quality (MSTQ) System, etc
  

(ii)Modernize R&D Base

• Restructuring public R&D Institutions
• Industry participation in R&D
• Promoting applied and contractual research
• Protection and commercialization of R&D outputs
• Increasing synergy between R&D community and industry, etc.
  

(iii) Innovation at the Firm Level

• Technology upgrading at the firm-Level
• Science & Technology Parks
• Innovation Centers
• Technology Advisory Services
  

(iv) Financing of Innovation Activities

• Commercialization of R&D outputs
• Early-stage and late-stage R&D financing
• Support for new businesses – venture capital, start-up funds, conditional loans, grants, equity, royalty programs, etc