Turkey hosts IT workshop for D-8 countries

A presentation of the system which enables foreign nationals to obtain a Turkishvisa online was made by Turkey's Foreign Ministry's IT director, Haldun Koc tomembers of D-8 countries attending an IT technology workshop in Ankara onWednesday.D-8 is an economic cooperation group founded by former Turkish prime ministerNecmettin Erbakan in 1997 and made up of members - Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia,Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and TurkeyThe aim of the two-day workshop is to share information technology data and holdcooperation agreement talks between the foreign ministries of the D-8 countries.Koc said, "global cyberspace is made up of 2.7 billion internet users with nearly 2billion interconnected computers," Koc said. "It is expected by the end of year 2016,4 billion individuals will be connected via wifi."This group is due to meet five times this year. A series of ministerial meetings willbegin on May 26-28, when D-8 energy ministers meet in the central Anatolianprovince of Kayseri. It will mark the beginning of Turkey’s two-year presidency,which it takes over from Pakistan.Introduced in April last year, the downloadable visa system had its one millionthuser in March this year.