Turkish ICT sector grows 83 percent last year

ISTANBUL

The size of Türkiye’s information and communications technologies (ICT) sector grew by 83 percent last year to reach 784.6 billion Turkish Liras, according to a report by Informatics Industry Association (TÜBİSAD).

On U.S. dollar basis, the industry expanded 27 percent in 2023 from the previous year to $33 billion.

Between 2019 and 2013, the annual average growth of the sector on lira basis was around 50 percent, according to the report.

The size of the information technologies market grew from 213.9 billion liras in 2022 to 382.4 billion liras in 2023, while the communication technologies sector reached a size of 402.2 billion, up from 195 billion.

Under information technologies, the hardware sector grew 68 percent to 133 billion liras, and the growth rate of the software sector was 132 percent to 207 billion liras. Services recorded a 96 percent increase to reach 62.2 billion liras.

Exports of the ICT sector increased by 85 percent from 2022 to reach 57.6 billion liras ($2.4 billion). The information technology software category generated 52 billion liras in export revenues, while the shares of the hardware and service were 1.65 billion liras and 1.26 billion liras.

Exports of the communications technologies hardware sector amounted to 2.26 billion liras.

Employment in the ICT sector grew 11 percent in 2023 from 2022 to 237,000 people, with the information technologies segment accounting for the largest share at 185,000.

The number of technopolis in Türkiye increased from 97 in 2022 to 101 in 2023, while the number of companies operating at those facilities grew 14.5 percent to 10,275, according to the report.

Total revenues of those companies soared nearly 175 percent to 207.5 billion liras and their export revenues leaped 139 percent to 47.5 billion liras last year, the report said.