Middle Black Sea Agency (OKA) "Technology Development Zones Meeting" was held in Samsun. Speaking at the meeting held at a hotel in Samsun, OKA Board Member and Samsun Governor İbrahim Şahin stated that Samsun is one of the world's medical surgical instrument export centers. Şahin said, "We say that medical instruments are clustered in 3 regions in the world. One of them is Turkey and Samsun in Turkey. We definitely need to bring medical surgical instruments to the forefront in Samsun. While doing this, we need to cooperate with university professors. These professors need to be surgeons and work together with industrialists. In Turkey, the money we produce per kilo in exports is 1 and a half dollars per kilo. However, this is 300 dollars for medical surgical instruments. In Germany, a country of 40 million people, one out of every 4 people is in contact with medical devices. Therefore, this study is very important. Because if we are going to do something about technological development zones, our job is not very easy. Therefore, we need to hold more such meetings." "Stating that in order to leave a better country and a better future for our children, it is necessary to engage in production by using technology, OKA Board Member and Mayor of Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Yusuf Ziya Yılmaz said, "Today, the intensity of technology on the goods produced has indeed become one of the most important things to be done in the process of turning a production into a product in the world. In production-based economies. The price of a good in the market used to be related to transportation costs. But today, China, one of the most distant countries in the world, can be competitive with you by bringing a technology-intensive product to the market right under your nose and discarding all transportation costs. In such a world, the importance of technology is better understood. Unfortunately, our industrialists are not yet aware of this. With this awareness, they are still a bit pessimistic and slow in terms of adjusting the pace of this business and directing their R&D efforts towards it. There are a few companies in Samsun that have proven themselves in the world market. But I sincerely express that they are still far from being competitive with technology. Prosperity passes through production. We have to produce to leave a beautiful future for our children. Then we need to do the technology and the researches that need to be done on this subject. Industrial production in Samsun is considerably less than the industrial production in our country. In order to increase our production parameter in the industry, we need to be in an action plan for higher products there by intensifying the technology business. We are making efforts, but these efforts will not take us to the point we want. So we need to follow others and try harder than them. We will have to reach a performance that can compete with them." "WE ARE ONE OF THE FIRST AGENCIES TO DETERMINE INNOVATION STRATEGY" OKA Secretary General Mevlüt Özen said that they were one of the agencies that determined the innovation strategy between 2014 and 2018. Özen said, "In the coming period, we want to work very closely with universities, business development centers and TEKNOPARKs within the framework of this innovation strategy. The most important event that shows this determination is that we worked very closely with Hitit University and Çorum OIZ by financing the construction of 75 percent of a technology zone for the first time in Turkey as a guided project in Çorum Technology Zone. We organized such a meeting in order to enable these technology centers to create synergy with each other in the coming period." Following the speeches, the first session of the Technology Development Zones Meeting continued with the presentation of Dilek Birbil, Head of DGF Department of the Ministry of Science, Industry and Technology, on 'Branding in Technology Development Zones', 'International Activities' and 'Services Provided to Entrepreneurs'. The program ended with presentations made by officials from various universities and technology parks.