The steam era was the first step in the 19th century Industrial Revolution. With the 20th century, the Second Industrial Revolution could be summarized as the revolution of electricity and the electric motor. The computerization process at the end of the 1970s signaled the Third Industrial Revolution. While the Fourth Industrial Revolution has been summed up as digitalization of the economy, the world anxiously awaits "Life 5.0," when it is expected that deep learning systems will enter all areas of life, from information to economy, as well as industry, defense, energy and urbanization. Life 5.0 creates a new field of competition among nations in terms of artificial intelligence, the cooperation of machines and various manufacturing processes. Thus, it is time to focus on the human-technology convergence with a "national-local" leap to keep Turkey up-to-date in the "Age of Reason."

As a magnificent creation of nature, the network of the brain is at our service. As a result, Turkey must use its collective intelligence to be up to the level of economies present in all technologies and smart systems brought by on by the "Age of Reason" through national and local software and hardware. Unlike our positions during the First, Second and Third Industrial Revolutions, Turkey's goal of becoming a top 10 world economy by 2023-2071 requires us to make Turkey one of the most resourceful economies in the "Age of Reason." This comes down to revamping the primary, secondary, and especially the higher education systems from scratch and re-building Turkey's governance model of science and technology.

At this point, we have to reconfigure Turkey's subsidy programs on science and technology and its research and development (R&D) model, and how we raise scientists in the field. From South Korea to Brazil, from Russia to Malaysia, from China to India, from Kuwait to Lithuania, many small and big countries have put immense effort intonational projects related to smart systems, while in search of collaborations with leading developing economies like Turkey. Turkey, from the Ottoman era to the Republic, has put forth an "inclusiveness" appreciated for the sake of the amity and the development in its geography. Let's transform this global respect toward the Turkish people's struggle for freedom into value by cooperating with these countries on smart systems.

Growth sustains its priority

Whether we read between the lines of the Federal Reserve (Fed) representatives' statements or analyze European Central Bank President (ECB) Mario Draghi's statements of "too early to declare victory," the most fundamental problem of leading economies is to grasp sustainable growth in a world economy that is still reeling from its last financial crisis. In an environment where the Fed does not retract the possibility of at least a 3, or even a 4, interest-rate hike this year, the necessary policy steps create a fragile area in terms of negatively affecting the growth in the U.S. economy. Likewise, ECB's boss Draghi, who has significantly contributed to the recovery of growth in the eurozone with expansionary monetary policy steps, emphasized that it is too early to celebrate the eurozone's current sustainable growth trend. From the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to the World Bank (WB), the primary agenda of international institutions is again managing and sustaining growth.

The IMF highlights that the Asia-Pacific region is still the world's fastest growing geography, estimating that the region grew 5.3 percent in 2016 and will grow 5.5 percent in 2017, while keeping their predictions at 5.8 percent for 2018. However, in the latest regional economic outlook report, the IMF has stated that Asia-Pacific countries face serious uncertainties and downward risks regarding the Fed's possible rapid monetary tightening steps or if protectionist policies caused by western economies rise. The IMF emphasizes that the easy monetary and financial policies adopted almost everywhere in the region increase the domestic demand. However, if important consumer markets, such as the U.S., take steps to pressure the trade, this might negatively affect economies dependent on exports to a large extent. This is why all of U.S. President Donald Trump's steps over the next days and months regarding international politics and trade will be critically important for Asia-Pacific.

In a world where a developing countries' average growth, with the exception of China and India, barely catches 1 percent, the eurozone's average is 1.7, Mexico's 2.1 and South Africa has grown 0.1. While Latin America shrunk by 0.6 percent, Brazil by 3.3, Russia 0.8, Turkey, having grown 3.8 percent in the first quarter of 2017 according to the estimates, has had a strong "growth" narrative. To clench the sustainability of this narrative, we have to accelerate private sector investments. The various successive steps taken by the government over the last nine months to support the real sector and the subsidy packages should be transformed into added-value by the real sector regarding the clearing political environment following the April 16 referendum.