Microsoft will continue to back Turkey's digital transformation by providing technological and ecosystem support to local software developers, Microsoft Turkey Director of Public Sector and Investments Erdem Erkul said Tuesday.

Speaking at a press meeting for local startups, Erkul said: "We want to kick-start Turkey's information-driven economy and promote the perception of ‘Made in E-Turkey' abroad. Our goal is to support more domestic software companies, especially by providing solutions to critical sectors like the public, health, finance, production and retail."

He said that cloud technology, artificial intelligence (AI), the "internet of things," autonomous cars and advanced robotic technologies will gain importance in the coming years.

"AI is one of the most popular concepts today and the leading countries in this field will become much stronger, especially between 2025 and 2030," he said, adding that the private sector will be the essential driving force behind those countries' success.

"From 2005 to 2015, around 13 percent of the world's gross GDP stemmed from the digital economy," he said. By 2025 that figure is expected to reach 24 percent. "Next year, the global AI market volume will hit $12.5 billion, as 40 percent of digital projects are expected to be AI based," Erkul added. Director of Commercial Partners at Microsoft Turkey Tarık Tuzunsu said the share of software products in the information technologies market is increasing gradually.

"We want to support the companies born and grown in Turkey as the country has lots to do," Tuzunsu said, adding that "to stimulate Turkey's software ecosystem, we are supporting more than 2,000 local initiatives."

Tuzunsu noted that the domestic software market in Turkey reached $315.8 million with an annual growth rate of 4.7 percent last year. "We expect the market to climb over $400 million in 2022 and we want to create software giants in Anatolia," he said. He added that due to the global competition in every sector, selling products only in the home country is not enough. "Now, commercial enterprises are paying attention to the cost-effectiveness. With cloud technology, companies do not need anything other than the internet, as there is a transition from fixed costs to variable costs," Tuzunsu said.

Defining cloud technology as revolutionary, he said: "Cloud is the only way newly established software companies can sell their products in other countries. "Turkey's economy is one of the most important in the world and software products will play a much larger role in the country's future exports," he added

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