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The performances of countries in achieving their economical and social objectives in the 21th century, are substantially determined by the success rates on transforming their traditional economies into design focused innovation economies. The science and technology oriented policies, which are developed and applied for accommodating economical development and social prosperity, evolved into Innovation Policies and National Innovation Systems in the course of time. In this evolution process, while the importance of innovation is understood and implemented on the policy structures, the immediate support to design activity which is an important step placing at the center of innovation process, has not been achieved in most of developing countries. Analyzing certain countries that have strengthened their industrial or technological infrastructure by design awareness, experienced significant economical and social improvements by building up a new infrastructure, and developed specialized design support programmes; main principles of common inferences and support programmes have been formulated.

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Alper Calguner; BID, MS, METU Department of Industrial Design; PhD, ITU Department of Industrial Design; 2006- Instructor at Gazi University, Faculty of Fine Arts; 2006-2009 Part Time Instructor at METU, Faculty of Architecture; 2002-2006 General Manager at PupillaDesign; 2000-2002 Project Manager at GET, Ankara.

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