In his assessment, Mehmet Ali Tombalak noted that Turkey's IT sector exports have increased very sharply in recent times and stated that the fact that the largest share is in the software category of information technologies shows that Türkiye is on the right track in terms of value added growth.
Tombalak explained that they expect not only a continuation of growth, but also a strengthening of its quality: “Artificial intelligence, cloud technologies, analytics, cybersecurity and data-oriented solutions will be the main drivers of the sector in the coming period. We see opportunities for our companies in sectors, especially in artificial intelligence.” he said.
Pointing out that artificial intelligence and cloud are among the areas expected to have the biggest impact in the next one to three years, Tombalak said: “If Turkey can strengthen its human resources, productization and global sales capabilities, it can make a much stronger jump in software and IT services exports after 2026.” he said.
Pointing out that on the market side, Türkiye's strongest axis is Europe, North America and selected Gulf States, Tombalak said:
“While Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom rank first in the Service Exporters Association's industry strategy study, the Netherlands, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and France are also among the standout markets. This table shows that Türkiye can both compete in developed markets and create advantages in regions of geographical and commercial proximity.”
“Türkiye is one of the most competent and scalable countries in its region”
Mehmet Ali Tombalak explained that there is still a significant growth area when considering the share of Türkiye's IT exports in total services exports.
Stating that Türkiye is one of the most competent and scalable countries in its region, Tombalak said: “The most important factors that increase the global competitiveness of Turkish software companies are strong human resources, production capacity, agility, quick access to nearby regions and flexibility in solution development.” he said.
Pointing out that the biggest obstacles for Turkish software companies in opening to international markets are access to scalable finance, visibility in global markets and the right business development capabilities, Tombalak said: “It is not enough to just produce good technology; it is necessary to produce that technology, position it in the right markets, build trust and build a sustainable sales structure.” he said.
“Türkiye is no longer an ecosystem that comes into play, but strengthens its claim”
Mehmet Ali Tombalak said that Türkiye's entrepreneurship ecosystem is now at a much more visible, dynamic and potential point compared to global technology centers.
Noting that Türkiye is no longer an ecosystem that is included in the game but that strengthens its claim, Tombalak said: “Now we need to make it a permanent global competition. It is important to develop an investment environment that paves the way for reverse takeovers, to transform the invested companies into companies that can invest over time, and to promote the ecosystem with strategies that are specifically set for this topic.” he said.
Pointing out that artificial intelligence should be viewed from a different perspective today, Tombalak said: “Artificial intelligence is no longer a horizontal technology or even just a technology tool, it is a vertical force multiplier. Turkey is a manufacturing country. We have extensive practical experience in many sectors, from industry to energy, from banking to retail and logistics. Therefore, the main area that will increase Türkiye's competitiveness lies in the development of industry-specific applications of artificial intelligence and not in the development of general solutions.” he said.
“Solutions that understand the dynamics of the sector can strengthen Türkiye’s competitive advantage”
Mehmet Ali Tombalak said that if we look at the applications that Turkish companies are focusing on on the artificial intelligence side, areas that provide more concrete business results stand out.
Pointing out that the crucial problem for them is to create a structure that not only uses artificial intelligence, but also adapts it to the needs of the industry, produces it and converts it into export, Tombalak said: “Türkiye has a real opportunity here to use artificial intelligence beyond an efficiency tool and transform it into a domestic technology with high added value and global competitive power.” he said.
Tombalak explained that solutions that understand the dynamics of the sector, such as: “If the expertise of our domestic software companies, our strong technical capacity and the data accumulation of the sectors are combined, artificial intelligence can become not only a used technology for Turkey, but also a high-value-added technology field that can be exported to global markets.” made the statement.
Stating that it is possible for the digital economy to make a much greater contribution to Türkiye's productivity, exports and competitiveness as artificial intelligence, data economy, cybersecurity, software, cloud and platform-based business models become stronger in the coming period, Tombalak said: “In fact, the 2030 Industrial and Technology Strategy positions the digital economy as one of Türkiye's transformation areas and proposes a much more assertive framework for high-tech production and exports.” he said.
“In the digital age, data centers have now become critical value creation centers”
Mehmet Ali Tombalak pointed out that one of the important issues that will accelerate the growth of the digital economy is strengthening the ecosystem economy.
Pointing out that they view Türkiye's data center investments and development in the field of cloud computing as a strategic transformation, Tombalak said: “In the digital era, data centers are no longer just technical infrastructure, but have become critical value centers that carry the digital independence, economic growth and innovation capacity of countries. Today, Türkiye's data center sector creates an economy of about $1 billion and provides jobs for thousands of people. However, the most important thing is that an ecosystem that not only supports data stores, but also processes them, transforms them.” and converting it into economic value has begun to form. he said.
Stating that Türkiye's geographical location also represents a significant advantage in this area, Tombalak said: “Located in the Europe-Middle East-Africa triangle, our country is a natural bridge in terms of data traffic. In this way, Istanbul has the potential to become one of the centers of the new digital Silk Road. International reports also show that Türkiye's data center capacity will grow strongly in the coming years. The capacity, which is about 400 MW today, will increase to 100 MW.” 500-750 MW in 2028-2030.” It is expected to reach the MW range.” made the statement.
Bir yanıt yazın