I will discuss the “Turkey Development Summit” organized yesterday by the International Development Association and Ankara Yıldırım Bayazıt University.

Such summits would be organized in the past by public institutes and organizations. Now they are held by university students. Summit sessions included topics that are important axes of the Turkish economy and Turkey’s real agenda such as energy, security and research and development.

As someone who joined and managed the energy session and who has in recent years been working in the field of energy, such a demand for energy and the questions being asked gave me hope.

The scene I witnessed, the topic of energy in Turkey is a subject that is now on everybody’s agenda. University students attaching this great importance to energy and seeking a future in the field of energy, in addition to them trying to find out what can be done in the area pleased me greatly.

With this pursuit and curiosity, as new generation youth are now moving from the public to the private sector, they are also being positively influenced by the success stories they hear about in the private sector.

The headlining topics in the energy session were the importance of local sources for the guarantee of energy supply and solar, wind and biogas energy, namely renewable energy, which plays an important role in the minimization of foreign dependency.

It should not be forgotten that the efforts and investments in recent years in the area of renewable energy are quite important steps for Turkey’s economy.

The speeches given by those who attended the summit’s energy session, encouraging the youth to become entrepreneurs in the private sector, their knowledge on opening a business and motivation hit the spot in eliminating students’ concern for the future.

Mehmet Ali Doğan, who has investments in the area of geothermal energy, touched on the sweet aspect of the business when students expressed their holiday demand during his energy and tourism presentation. The investments in geothermal energy contributing to both energy production and the tourism industry is noteworthy.

Meanwhile, Yusuf Yenice, an expert on biogas, talked about the contribution of biogas to Turkey’s energy production, while he also motivated students interested in entrepreneurship with his inspiring and encouraging talk on the subject. Also, Turkey’s lack of power plans in the area of biogas energy shows the significant opportunities available in this area.

To give an example, the number of power plants set up for biogas production is more than 6,700 in Germany, while there are no more than 20 in Turkey. Yet, animal breeding in Turkey is a sector which origins go back many years. The potential that will arise with 15 million cattle and 500 million chicken waste, food factory waste and other organic waste turning into energy is more than two nuclear power plants.

In this context, the steps to be taken in biogas energy are quite important both in terms of Turkey’s energy supply security and the country’s economy. The more constant the support given to biogas energy in the upcoming period, the sooner every district will get biogas power plants where they can generate their own power from their own waste.

Energy is such an area that as much as it is related to development, it is also related to the fields of diplomacy, tourism, medicine and sociality. We saw and observed this summit.

In addition to providing education, training and research, universities are now going to eliminate the youth’s concerns regarding the future, guide them through such cooperation and productive meetings with the private sector, and through these good examples, youth should become a part of this.

The theoretical information provided at universities being strengthened with practical information will also contribute to the emergence of skilled labor. In many recent studies, employees respond to the question of why they do not want to hire fresh graduates by saying, “Fresh graduates are far from practical life.”

Doing something in this area will both reduce young unemployment in the country and give the private sector new entrepreneurs.

Thus, the expectations of public institutions will be reduced.