Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

TOBB Board of Directors Member Mehmet Büyüksimitci stated in his opening speech that they follow the work done by the Türkiye Software Council and the problems they have experienced as TOBB closely, and that they are with the sector in every step to be taken. Büyüksimitci, who conveyed the developments in the sector, informed the Council Members about the public meetings where the problems of the sector were conveyed.

A presentation was made by SAHA İSTANBUL Secretary General İlhami Keleş, who attended the meeting as a guest, about the establishment of SAHA İstanbul and the SAHA EXPO Defense Aerospace Industry Fair to be held in Istanbul on 25-28 October.

Another guest of the meeting was Ayçe Furth, CCO of Stellantis in charge of Corporate Functions. She provided information about the software sector post-Covid business life and employer relationship in the world and in Turkey.

- Ertan Barut conveyed the work and developments of the council

In the meeting, Council President Ertan Barut made a presentation about the legislation consulted in the past three months, the programs participated in, and the visits to public institutions. Barut gave information about the Turkey Software Inventory Project Data Infrastructure Design and Analysis Workshop organized under the roof of TOBB on June 23. Barut stated that in the workshop held with the participation of the public, non-governmental organizations, universities and the private sector, the data to be taken from the institutions and the methods of accessing the data were determined, and that the workshop report would be forwarded to the Council Members as soon as possible. The Council President stated that with the Turkish Software Labor Force Survey, there is an opportunity to approach Türkiye’s software workforce needs and losses in the sector and remote working and training needs with data, and that the results of the survey will be shared with the public as soon as possible.

Council President Ertan Barut made a presentation and noted that they made a lot of effort as the Council for remote working support in technology development zones, technoparks and R&D centers and as a result, the support was increased from 50% to 75% with the Presidential Decision. Barut also underlined the importance of legislative work on making remote work a way of working for the software sector, and that efforts should be made to prevent the loss of labor force in Turkey and to increase employment.

- Developer training program starts

The Council President informed that the Software Workforce Training Program will be launched as a certified program together with TOBB University of Economics and Technology. He stated that the rapid training program, which was developed as an alternative to the loss of trained personnel and the employment problem experienced in the sector, will be launched in September.

Finally, Barut gave the good news that he conveyed the problems he received from the Assembly Members to the Central Bank Governor and the General Managers of the Public Bank in the organization organized under the roof of TOBB and that the financing source for export-based investment for the software sector would be arranged.

At the end of the meeting, the employment problem due to brain drain and solution proposals were evaluated by the Council Members. The Council Members stated that companies in foreign countries are employing software developers by offering attractive offers and high wages by using the remote working option, so Turkish software companies have difficulty in retaining the software workforce. Members underlined that if the process continues like this, the loss of labor will not be prevented.