Explanations on Software Sector and Service Export from Alim Küçükpehlivan

Başarsoft CEO and YASAD Deputy Chairman Alim Küçükpehlivan, who participated in the live broadcast of the “Business World” program presented by Didem Arslanoğlu on Bloomberg HT, made important statements regarding the software industry and service exports:

Software is one of the fastest-growing key industries

He pointed out that the software industry is one of the fastest growing main industries in Turkey when looking at the past six months, and said that software is growing even faster than the IT industry, which has a 20 percent growth. Mr. Küçükpehlivan, who gave an example from the potential distribution of the sector within itself, said, “We have approximately 8 thousand IT companies. About 500 of them are game software companies. If you exclude game developers, the export amount of the rest is close to 2 billion dollars. In other words, the export of 500 game software companies is 2 billion dollars,” he said.

“Software is a very strategic sector.”

Mr. Küçükpehlivan stated that software export provides maximum output with minimum input; He pointed out that software made differently from exporting goods can be sold not to one, but to hundreds, thousands of people or companies, provided that the cost remains the same, and that software is a very strategic sector in this respect: and that it can go into production very fast.”

We didn’t see positive discrimination…

Mr. Küçükpehlivan emphasized that the public and private sectors in Turkey did not demand domestic software for years; Instead, he said that foreign software is used, so they do not see any positive discrimination as an industry: “When we go to the foreign market to export when they ask which company or institution is using your software in your country if you can’t show an example, your exports will be blocked. This situation started to change with the exchange rate shocks experienced in 2018 and 2021. Now, in the software preferences of the public and private sectors, it has started to be procured from the domestic market“

Our software exports are far below the potential

Küçükpehlivan gave an example from Spain, whose education level and demographic structure are similar to Turkey in terms of potential in software exports, and said, “Spain is a country half the size of our population, but there are five times as many IT exports as we do. “Unfortunately, we are far below our potential,” he said.

Establishing the ‘Information Export Association’

He said that the Service Exporters’ Association was established recently and that they set out to establish the “Informatics Exporters’ Association” under this roof, adding, “Currently, the number of our members has approached 900. When this number reaches 1000, we will start the journey. In addition, a general directorate was established within the Ministry of Commerce on this subject. Serious studies are carried out and we support this structuring as YASAD. As one of the ten committees within the Service Exporters’ Association in 2023, I hope that the Informatics Committee will establish its union.”

The ban on foreign exchange contracts makes inroads in the sector

Mr. Küçükpehlivan pointed out that with a regulation enacted in 2018, the sector was prohibited from making contracts in foreign currency and said, “However, in this inflationary environment, we are losing even one-year contracts. While we are making price adjustments to our employees more and more frequently, I cannot do so in my own business, in my contracts. This situation makes trade difficult. The issue between two prudent merchants should not be of such interest to the state as long as the tax is established.”

The way of Young people in the Software Engineer sector is wide open

He stated that there is a very serious potential for young people in the software industry nowadays when university department preferences are also on the agenda; He underlined that while a person who wants to become a doctor must go to medical school, for example, a young person with a mathematics degree can become a world-class software developer with a few courses and a few trainings at his own pace. On the other hand, he stated that a person who uses the information-software sector strategically can make serious expansions in every sector.