Middle income trap problem in Turkey: İndustry 4.0 as the output

Ⅳ. Industry 4.0, also known as the Industrial Revolution, brings with it new production systems. This new smart production approach, which prioritizes digitalization at every stage of production, opens a new horizon for countries that have reached the limits of growth. This new smart production system will play an important role in helping a developing country like Turkey, caught in the Middle Income Trap, reach the level of high-income countries. Countries caught in the Middle Income Trap, that is, countries whose per capita income remains at a certain level and cannot exceed this level for many years, find the way out of the Middle Income Trap by internalizing this new production approach and realizing growth. The realization of this can only be possible with the implementation of the innovation economy. In the innovation economy process, the importance of R&D and educated/qualified labor supply will provide a significant advantage in bringing new technologies into the economy. Sustaining growth will be possible in an economy where high value-added products are produced based on advanced technology, that is, productivity increase can be achieved as a result of innovations and competitiveness can be achieved in foreign trade. In this study, if Turkey adopts the innovative production approach brought by Industry 4.0, whether there will be a way out for the Middle Income Trap problem will be examined with explanations and data. Keywords: Middle Income Trap, Industry 4.0, Dicle University, Fourth Industrial Revolution, Industry 4.0, Turkish Economy, 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence, Intelligent Production System