Minister Kacır announces domestic navigation app and 2027 Moon mission plans

Turkish Industry and Technology Minister Mehmet Fatih Kacır attended the 2026-2027 academic year opening and honorary doctorate ceremony of Bursa Technical University (BTÜ) in the Yıldırım district of Bursa. Speaking at the ceremony, he said Türkiye has more than 1,700 R&D and design centres, 164 of them in Bursa, and that annual R&D spending rose from $1.2 billion in 2002 to about $20 billion.

Kacır said Türkiye is preparing to switch fully to a domestic navigation app from the start of 2027, deleting foreign apps from phones, and stressed the importance of data security. He said a domestically produced lunar vehicle, more than 80 percent localised, is planned to be sent to the Moon in the first months of 2027. Work has also started on a spaceport in Somalia, where launch costs could be about 30 percent lower than in Türkiye.

On artificial intelligence, he said Türkiye aims to give 5 million citizens AI literacy within two years and train 10,000 advanced experts and 100,000 AI professionals. Data centre capacity is to rise from 250 megawatts to more than 1 gigawatt. Kacır also said Türkiye will develop its own nuclear reactor, and a modular reactor project has started under TÜBİTAK and TENMAK.