Turkish information, communication sector up by 83% last year

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - The Turkish information and communication technologies sector's size reached 784.6 billion Turkish liras (some $33 billion) in 2023, expanding by 83% year-on-year, the country's Informatics Industry Association (Tubisad) announced on Tuesday.

In a press conference in Istanbul, the association, in collaboration with Deloitte, revealed that the sector's size also increased on a USD basis by 27% to $33 billion.

Total employment in the sector was up by 11% to 237,000 people across the country, the association's figures showed.

The hardware category of information technologies grew by 68% to 133 billion liras ($5.6 billion), software by 132% to 206.9 billion liras ($8.7 billion), and the service by 96% to 62.2 billion liras ($2.6 billion).

Under communication technologies, the size of the electronic communication category increased by 72% to 224.5 billion ($9.4 billion) and hardware by 93% to 157.8 billion liras ($6.6 billion).

On an international scale, the size of the global information and communication market increased by 1.1% to $4.45 trillion last year.

In 2023, exports of the sector in Türkiye were up by 85% to 58 billion liras ($2.4 billion).

The information technology software category accounted for the largest share of exports, with 52 billion liras ($2.2 billion).

Türkiye's Deputy Industry and Technology Minister Zekeriya Costu said during the meeting that the Turkish information ecosystem has the potential to become "a global phenomenon," and that the sector's future is "very promising."

Mehmet Ali Tombalak, head of the association, also said the technology sector will shape the future and that all parties need to work together to ensure its development.

In 2023, he said, for the first time information technologies surpassed the market size of communication technologies in the country.

He added: "Again for the first time when we look at the growth area in information technologies, the software sector is number one, which is what we always wanted.

"We also grew in software exports, which means that our companies are productizing. This is also a very important development."

The USD/TRY exchange rate was at 23.79 on average last year.