Tech giant Microsoft is looking to set up a billion-dollar software company in Turkey, a senior executive of the company said Friday.
"We want to take local enterprises, sprouted in the country by our solutions, to the global market," said Murat Kansu, general manager of Microsoft Turkey.
On Friday, Microsoft Turkey organized a meeting where it reaffirmed its support for Turkey's software and information sector. It also introduced a number of independent software startups including Bunsar, Poilabs, Sestek, and Broadage.
The initiatives have made a name both at home and abroad with the support of Microsoft Turkey.
Kansu said the company is investing in Turkey's digital and economic future while supporting local software enterprises.
He noted that the company has so far supported more than 2,000 local enterprises in Turkey.
He noted that Microsoft is celebrating its 25th anniversary in Turkey and achieved many technological firsts and transformations here since 1993.
Kansu said they have touched the lives millions of end users, brought together 12,000 business partners, over 1,000 corporations and more than 700,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with the most innovative and reliable technologies. "We provided employment for 100,000 people in Turkey through their business partners," he said.
Onur Koç, the chief technology officer at Microsoft Turkey, underlined the importance of Turkish startups.
He said the company focused on creating a generation that can develop software to increase the number of local software and improve the sector in Turkey.
"We provide free cloud and technology support for nearly 2,000 Turkish startups. We also support these startups in providing sales promotional marketing support abroad," Koç said.
He underlined that it is necessary to create an analytically thinking and entrepreneurial generation that develops software as a country.
Microsoft Turkey SME Sales and Marketing Assistant General Manager Tarık Tüzünsu stressed that the only way to make Turkey a producer rather than a consumer in information sector is to increase IT exports.
Tüzünsu said giving importance to exports and exporting software in technology and transforming all the industrial products they produce into smarter products is crucial for their future.
