Business

Service exports amounted to $58 billion in the Software industry

The Software and Informatics Industry Clustering Association brought together 160 companies consisting of representatives of the IT sector, hosted by the Izmir Exporters’ Association, on July 4th.

Ministry of Commerce Informatics Sector Supports Information Meeting Internationalization of Turkish Informatics Sector and E-Turquality (Stars of Informatics) Program details, was hosted by the Aegean Exporters’ Association with the opening speeches of Emre Orhan Oztelli, General Manager of International Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, and Akin Sertcan, Vice Chairman of the Software and Informatics Committee of the Service Exporters’ Association, Service Exporters Union General Secretary Fatih Ozer, YABISAK-Software and Informatics Industry Clustering Association Chairman Dr. Faruk Guler, Ministry of Commerce International Service Trade General Manager Emre Orhan Oztelli.

”Digital transformation is a strategic issue”

Hurol KARLI, Head of Information, Software, Digital and Communication Services Department of the Ministry of Commerce, General Directorate of International Service Trade, made an informative presentation on Service Supports.

YABISAK-Software and Informatics Industry Cluster Association Chairman of the Board Dr. Faruk Guler said, “Digital Transformation and the fourth industrial revolution not only change consumer habits, the entire value chain, especially products and services, but also rewrite the rules of competition. We see that digital transformation has become a mainstream and strategic issue in every sense in our age. While innovation, new business models and technology are at the core of this great transformation, software-based competitive advantage is at the center of all this interaction.”

Seven of the top 10 companies are technology firms

Reminding that in 2000, companies in oil, pharmaceutical, finance and similar different sectors stood out among the global companies with the highest market value, he reminded that there was only one technology company Microsoft in the top ten:

“Today, seven of the world’s top 10 companies are technology firms (Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba and Tencent). When these giants are examined, we see that five of them are almost entirely software-oriented, while software has a critical importance in the competitive advantage of three companies. As a country, we have a growing entrepreneurship ecosystem with technopolis investments, R&D, innovation incentives and private sector startup collaborations that have been increasing for many years.”

”It is very encouraging to see that concrete steps have been taken”

Faruk Guler said, “However, we have not yet been able to get the share we deserve in the global software ecosystem. It is very encouraging to see that concrete steps have been taken to strengthen the software ecosystem with support and incentives focused directly on informatics, which is the reason why we are gathered here today. We believe that every step to be taken towards the development of the software ecosystem will contribute to making our country more known in the production of software products and services and to increase its exports.”

”This industry is a people-oriented developing industry”

Explaining that at the beginning of 2021, the Software and Informatics Industrialists Cluster Association, whose short name is YABISAK, was established in İzmir, together with leading institutions, companies and universities, Guler concluded his words as follows:

“YABISAK is an association established to further increase the success of Izmir in the fields of innovation, entrepreneurship, R&D and industry 4.0 in recent years and to make the city a center of attraction where local and foreign companies from the software and information sector are clustered. As YABISAK, we carry out studies to serve our members and the whole sector in many areas such as developing cooperation opportunities, increasing education and employment opportunities, accessing finance, opening up to international markets and developing infrastructure.

We are working on a project to bring a trained workforce to the sector in cooperation with universities. Because we know that this sector is a people-oriented developing sector. Access to the workforce needed by the industry is the most essential problem.”

”Last year, we realized service exports of $58.1 billion”

Fatih Ozer, Secretary General of the Service Exporters Association, said, “All of our sub-sectors benefit from the support. There is an increase of $10 billion in our service exports. Last year, we exported services worth $58.1 billion. We contributed $25 billion to the country’s economy. Software and informatics exports touch all sectors.”

Akin Sertcan, Vice Chairman of the Software and Informatics Committee of the Service Exporters Association, said, “Service sectors are a strategic area. We closed the year 2021 with an export of $58 billion with a growth of 61%. We made a great contribution to the country’s economy by providing a service trade surplus of $25 billion. We aim to double service exports. Our software exports increased by 20% last year and reached $2.5 billion. We aim to reach $15 billion in the coming period. We aim to reach $110 billion of service exports in 2025.”

Emre Orhan Oztelli, General Manager of International Service Trade at the Ministry of Commerce, said, “We have increased the support items in service exports. We revised Turquality. We have prepared a separate support mechanism package for the IT sector under the title of Internationalization of the Turkish Informatics Sector and e-Turquality Informatics Stars. It consists of 44 support items.”

The meeting, which attracted the great attention of the participating companies, ended with a one-on-one meeting and networking event after a long question-answer session.

Source: Trthaber / Translated by Irem Yildiz

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button