Turkish business body launches digital technology council

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) – Türkiye's Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) launched on Tuesday a new business council on digital technologies.

Nail Olpak, the chairman of DEIK, said the new council will pave the way for various opportunities for Türkiye in other countries.

With the new council, the Turkish business body works to meet its commercial diplomacy experience and global network with Türkiye's leading technology companies, Olpak told a news conference in the DEIK headquarters in Istanbul.

The new council, with nine sub-councils, aims to make Türkiye a new digital technology hub and is focused on increasing exports and generating major companies globally.

The council covers fintech, gaming, cybersecurity, venture fund, software, innovation, cloud technology, mobile technologies, and health.

Olpak said the world economy is in a "twin process" of green transition and digital transition at the same time.

"Especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, we see that artificial intelligence has come to the fore in all areas of life," he said.

The size of the digital technology sector is around $30 billion in Türkiye and it is expected to grow 10% in 2022, Olpak said, adding the sector's global size is around $4.4 trillion.

There is a huge opportunity for Türkiye in the digital technology sector, he stressed, as it has a potential in many sectors from gaming to cybersecurity and cloud technologies.

The DEIK head said Türkiye has six unicorn firms, including two decacorns, and the Turkish business body aims to increase the amount of venture capital in the sector by bringing together foreign venture capital funds and Turkish startups, scaleups and domestic venture capital funds in Türkiye.

Unicorn refers to startups with a valuation of $1 billion or over, while the figure is $10 billion for decacorns.

Erdem Erkul, the head of DEIK's Digital Technologies Business Council, said the council members are mostly Turkish technology startups and companies which are in business relation with world's top 10 technology firms.

The council aims to make at least five fintech firms enter the Fortune 500 list by 2030 and make at least one of every four fintech firms international by 2025, he stressed.

It also aims to increase the venture capital's share in digital technologies and raise the number of technology exporter companies, making Türkiye a reliable software producer, he said.

In the gaming field, the council will support companies to create at least two unicorns and one decacorn, he added.