As its economic and population growth continues, Turkey seeks steps to improve its cities which have long suffered from haphazard planning and uncontrollable growth in population. To this extent, the government rolled out its 2020-2023 National Smart Cities Strategy and Action Plan.

The plan, a result of work and consultations between ministries, local administrations and smart city suppliers, was introduced in the capital Ankara by the Minister of Environment and Urban Development Murat Kurum. It is the first of such plans in Turkey and for Kurum, it is an important step in Turkey’s history of urban planning.

In the first step, strategy papers will be sent to 81 provincial administrations to be implemented and a Livable City Index will be created. Around “87% of our cities lack a monitoring system for smart cities. We will run some sort of IQ tests to see the levels of our cities for adaptation into the smart city project,” he said.
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