We Shall Not Miss The Digital Transformation

We see that Turkey has enough potential to compete in different models of software services.

Especially with the digital transformation that has been experienced in the last 10 years, we see that 30 per cent of the fastest-growing businesses are technology companies. While the global value of unicorn companies has exceeded $1.5 trillion, the software export market stands out as it’s increased more than 10 per cent annually over the last decade. With the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we have understood the importance of digitalization much better than ever. During this period that has affected our lives in many aspects, especially in supply chains, we see the strategic importance and the great momentum that digitalization has gained. The transition to the digital business model is now on the agenda of companies at almost every scale..

As Turkey-US Business Council (TAİK), we continue our work in this area as well. In a report that we prepared in cooperation with Boston Consulting Group, named “Post Covid-19 Turkey-US Economic Relations”, one of three areas that offer an opportunity in the new post-pandemicera for Turkey is the digital economy. In this regard, our digital working committee at TAİK continues to work intensively with the support of the sector, under the leadership of Derya Matraş, Chairperson of TAİK California State Committee and Regional Vice Chairperson of Facebook Middle East, Africa, and Turkey. We talked to many institutions and companies in the industry while we were preparing our report and saw that we had a very strong human resource in this field and we could increase our service exports by attracting the American investments to our country by taking the right steps.

In the study, where we examine the investments made in geographies close to us such as Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria, we have determined that we can attract a total of $15 billion data centre investment to our country by 2030 if we use our geographically advantageous position. Turkey has achieved significant success in start-ups especially in the recent period. We have more than 7,500 start-ups and more than 550 new start-ups are established every year. As TAİK, we suggest that they should be supported, by establishing a mentoring system that covers Turkey and the global network. In our study, we concluded that we could attract $6.5 billion of venture capital to technology start-ups in 2030. We could also bring a cumulative investment of $30 billion to the country until that period. We aim to inform our companies in the field of software about exporting to the US and to support them in meeting potential buyers. When we examine the examples of other countries, we see that Turkey has the potential to compete in different models of software services. The strategy of becoming a service provider for the US market and standing out in niche areas offer us important opportunities. Preparing a report that will provide constructive and strategic solutions through a detailed investigation of the software and start-up fields is among the primary goals of our committee for the upcoming term. As a result of our study, we want to give strategic-solid outputs to the public and private sector in line with the recommendations of the Turkey-US Digital Corridor.

Director at Turkey-Americas Business Councils Ecem Mirzaloğlu