ISTANBUL
A leading Istanbul university and Turkish industrialists have signed a new deal to bring domestic software projects into the global market and increase the country’s number of qualified developers.
Bahcesehir University and Turkey’s Software Industrialists’ Association revealed the cooperation agreement on Thursday.
Attending the signing ceremony in Istanbul, Turkish communication minister Lutfi Elvan said the country’s software sector needed domestic products to boost quality and competitiveness.
“The software sector has reached $70 trillion in gross domestic product across the world. However, in Turkey, software exports have totaled $500 million; this figure is not enough for the country."
“We aim to upgrade the share of software exports to at least two percent of total exports in the upcoming years," Elvan said.
Pointing to Turkish technological change over the past decade, Elvan said: "This agreement has a key role in placing Turkey on the list of major global players who export software and well-trained information and communication technologies employees."
He said: "Countries, realizing the importance of software in the new economy, have achieved very valuable gains by supporting the software economy and the software industry. It is our turn."
President of the national Information and Communication Technologies Authority, Tayfun Acarer, said the most important problem for the information technology sector in Turkey is a lack of well-trained software developers.
Stating that even the European Union would need more than 850,000 qualified employees for its information sector within a few years, Acarer said: "This agreement will enable ICT students to not only get an education at an international level but to find a job as soon as they graduate."
"In terms of qualified human resources, Turkey needs to meet expectations. The agreement will provide an IT sector to meet the needs of well-trained software developers," Acarer added.
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