We Continue Global Technology Breakthrough with our UTPO Office

Moderated by journalist Ersoy Erkazancı, the event of the Dubai Technology Marketing Office located in the World Trade Centre (DWTC) was attended by Onur Şaylan, Consul General of Dubai, Orhan Tanışman, General Manager of YTU Yıldız Technopark, İsa Turgut İnci, Deputy General Manager, and senior executives of important NGOs and technology companies from Turkey. During the event, Onur Şaylan, Consul General of Dubai, gave information about the locations that Turkish companies can turn to, while Orhan Tanışman, General Manager of YTU Yıldız Technopark, talked about the advantages offered to companies.



"We are ready to support Turkish companies as Consulate General"

Onur Şaylan, Consul General of Turkey in Dubai, made the opening speech and started his speech by thanking YTU Yıldız Technopark. Şaylan said, "There are many opportunities for Turkish companies in Dubai, but there are prioritised sectors determined by the recent agreements. These are food, tourism, energy, renewable energy and especially technology. Therefore, there are very important opportunities in all these sectors. I think that Turkish technology companies should take advantage of this momentum between the governments of the two countries. There are very important opportunities provided by Dubai, but the UAE is not only Dubai. There are also opportunities offered by Abu Dhabi, Ras al-Khaimah and Fujairah. We are ready to provide all kinds of support to our companies with our Consul General, Commercial Attaché, Treasury and Finance Attaché. We expect and are ready to encourage our companies to take advantage of all these opportunities and not to stay only in Dubai or the UAE, but to take advantage of the opportunities offered by Dubai to expand to Africa, South Asia and beyond."

"Serious Investments in National Technology in the Last 15 Years"

Onur Şaylan, Consul General of Dubai, attributed the high level of participation in the event to the relations between the United Arab Emirates and Turkey and emphasised that both countries have gained a lot in the last two years and signed important agreements. Şaylan continued as follows; "The momentum created by this, especially the comprehensive economic agreements, is great. Turkey has made serious investments in national technology in the last 15 years and now we are reaping the fruits of these investments. Our companies are all over the world. In the same way, Yıldız Technical University is a brand in Turkey, but they are keeping this brand alive in Dubai, Tashkent, London and the USA. Our state also provides a lot of support to our Technopark through UTPO and the private sector is aware of this. Therefore, we are in a rapidly progressing structure where the state, university and private sector come together. This makes me, as the Consul General, and all our citizens proud."



"The First Step of Growth is to Meet the Foreign Market"

Stating that they support 17 IT companies with their offices in Dubai, Orhan Tanışman, General Manager of Starcamp Global FZE and YTU Yıldız Technopark, said that they will increase this number to 25 in the near future. Tanışman said, "We have been in Dubai for 3 years. Our aim here is to spread and market Turkish technologies to the world. We opened Turkey's first International Marketing Technology Office here as Yıldız Technopark StarTürk with the support of our Ministry of Trade. Our aim is to grow the R&D, innovation and entrepreneurship system in Turkey. The way to this growth is to meet with the foreign market in the first place. If you can sell technology to foreign markets, this creates a huge multiplier effect in your growth. For us, the Dubai market is a place that we see can grow rapidly. In addition, Dubai's new vision is to become a technology country rather than a real estate country. We are here because we think that Turkish technology can find a place in this market."

"We Bring Our Companies Together with Global Investment"

Orhan Tanışman stated that they provide guidance for Turkish technology to reach the place it deserves in the world and said that they are an umbrella organisation in order to increase the country's exports with the support of the state and to spread the technologies to the world. Tanışman continued as follows; "We care not only about the products entering the market, but also about the Turkish technology entrepreneurs being able to meet with world financing. From this point of view, Dubai is a location where financing is also available. Here, we need to be able to show the value we produce to investors as much as we bring our own products to the market. Our relations with the Gulf countries at the public level are gradually increasing. There are co-operation agreements signed and quite high figures are pronounced within these agreements. We are here to support Turkish technology companies in terms of how they can reach these figures, this market and the needs of the market."

"Incentive Package Increases the Speed of Market Attention"

Stating that the increasing relationship with the UAE at the state level is reflected on the private sector and Turkish companies, Tanışman underlined that many incentives are provided for Turkish companies at the public level. Tanışman finally said; "The UTPO programme already offers an incentive package in 5 different items, including the rent of the companies, the employees of the company in the umbrella organisation, financial consultancy, legal, consultancy expenses and even decoration expenses. When you benefit from this incentive package, of course, your speed of retention in the market increases even more. Your costs decrease, but above all, we provide a networking opportunity here. We set out to be a leader in its region and have a say in the global arena. In this journey, we had an experience in America before. Dubai accelerated this process for us and the incentives of our Ministry of Trade came into force in order to encourage enterprise exports."

"We Support Hundreds of Entrepreneurs Every Year"

Making a presentation titled 'Technology and Innovation' at the event, YTU Yıldız Technopark Deputy General Manager İsa Turgut İnci touched upon Turkey's investment volume. Stating that Istanbul is the 6th city in the world in terms of investment, İnci also stated that Turkey ranks 3rd in terms of investor volume in the MENA region. İnci said, "We support hundreds of entrepreneurs every year thanks to our high technologies and collaborations. As Teknopark, we are the supporter of creative ideas, innovative projects and above all, brave people. We are able to manage more than 1500 entrepreneurs and more than 10 thousand members with our platforms. Today, we have a huge portfolio of approximately 700 companies. YTU Yıldız Teknopark has become a hub that hosts very serious achievements in fintech, gametech, healtech and insurtech. In the field of gaming alone, we have 200 of the 400 registered game studios in Turkey. After London, Istanbul has the highest number of indie studios in Europe. Again, according to the last quarter figures, the province that received the most investment was again Istanbul. The valuations of our companies in the top 10 in the field of gaming are 500 million dollars. Again, the valuation of our total companies in this field has reached 1.1 billion dollars. We gather young entrepreneurs and experienced business people, academics and industry professionals under the same roof and create a strong synergy. In the same way, it is exciting for us to carry all this strength to the international market."

About Turkey's First International Marketing Office (UTPO)

We enable our IT companies to expand to North Africa, Arabia, Gulf and even Asia markets through Dubai.

o With Turkey's first International Technology Marketing Office (UTPO), which we established with our internationalisation experience, we enable our IT companies to benefit more effectively from the opportunities of the Ministry of Trade of the Republic of Turkey. 
o While we had a total of 9 companies in 2022, the number of our companies increased to 17 in 2023. Our target for 2024 is to increase the number of our companies to 25 and continue our growth.
o Located in the heart of Dubai, our headquarters is located in the DWTC (World Trade Centre) next to the Dubai Exhibition Centre, which hosts global exhibitions and events.
o Our office serves as a Turkish Technology Hub and Networking Centre for start-up companies.
o Our centre also hosts the Dubai Turkish Business Council, aiming to create the most suitable business environment for Turkish technology companies in the UAE.