Combined revenues of Turkiye’s largest 500 IT companies climbed to 214 billion Turkish liras in 2021, growing 26 percent from the previous year, according to a recent survey.
Revenues from software exports rose by 74 percent last year to 1.6 billion liras, while the industry’s service export revenues grew around 53 percent to hit 1.5 billion liras, showed the IT 500 Survey.
A ceremony was held in Istanbul to present awards to the companies that topped the list in six different categories.
In terms of the Turkish Lira,IT companies on average grew by 53 percent last year, up from the 42 percent growth recorded in 2020.
Some 57 percent of the companies in the list recorded a growth rate of more than 100 percent, while 163 companies’ growth rate was above average.
In the mid-high income countries, the information and communications technology (ICT) sector accounts for around 11 to 12 percent of all service exports, but this rate is 4 to 5 percent in Turkiye, said Hakan Yurdakul, a member of the Turkish Presidency’s Economic Policies Board, speaking at the ceremony.
“The industry’s exports should increase. However, the good news is that the local industry’s export growth exceeded that of the mid-high-income countries over the past 20 years. The pace of export growth is faster compared to the mid-high, high, low-income nations and OECD countries,” he added.
Organic growth in the industry is not enough to boost exports but the sector needs to grow through mergers and acquisitions and attract financial and strategic investments, Yurdakul said.
For his part, Mehmet Fatih Kacır, the deputy industry and technology minister, noted that there are more than 1,500 research and development (R&D) centers in Turkiye.
“Over 8,000 companies conduct innovation-centered R&D activities in 94 techno-parks. Applications were filed for 119 projects with a total value of $1.6 billion in R&D and investments,” Kacır added.