A new online platform is helping Turkish companies adopt digital tools to increase productivity and expand markets

1 December 2022, Ankara – A new Digital Way Platform aimed at assisting small and medium-sized Turkish companies capture the benefits of digitalization was formally launched today by the Ministry of Industry and Technology and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The platform is part of a larger effort designed to help the manufacturing and tourism sectors adopt digital tools to overcome the setbacks experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and improve competitiveness in an increasingly digital business world. 

Çetin Ali Dönmez, the Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology said “SMEs have a significant weight in our country's economy in terms of number and total production value. The increase in productivity and performance to be achieved through digitalization in SMEs are very critical for the economic growth of our country. Digitalization and digital transformation are always at the forefront in the policies and strategies of our Ministry. Although the digitalization agenda is an issue that is addressed at macro and sectoral scale, it is also an area where we develop strategies, programs and projects for regional development agenda. We believe that Digital Way Project makes significant contribution to the efforts for the digitalization of SMEs locally and is a best practice for our country." 

“COVID-19 helped us all discover the power of digitalization,” said Louisa Vinton, UNDP Türkiye Resident Representative. “In addressing the challenges posed by the pandemic, we also saw vast new opportunities to apply digital tools, not just to compensate for restrictions in movement and interaction, but also to make leaps forward in productivity and competitiveness. At the same time, we understood how vital it is to bridge digital divides between and within countries and between rich and poor, urban and rural, and men and women.”

UNDP and its partners in the MIT’s General Directorate of Development Agencies identified six regional development agencies to pilot the project activities: for the manufacturing sector, Central Anatolia (ORAN), East Marmara (MARKA) and Trakya (TRAKYAKA), and for the tourism sector Ahiler (AHİKA), Western Mediterranean (BAKA) and South Marmara (GMKA). SMEs in 21 provinces in these regions received training and consultancy services, with nearly 300 people participating. A further 30 SMEs from 12 provinces received one-to-one consultancy services to develop company-specific digitalization roadmaps. 

The project also created the Digital Way Platform. This web-based resource offers a digital maturity assessment tool that SMEs can use to assess see readiness to adopt digital technologies. The assessment tool defines progress as a “digital journey” in which enterprises are assigned a symbolic identity-persona, such as road seeker, map reader, traveler, discovery voyager and horizon voyager. SMEs are then matched with relevant training and consultancy services and technology solutions. The platform also provides opportunities for grant funding. 

To date, 297 SMEs, 30 consultants, 28 software-as-a-service (SaaS) suppliers have registered to use the platform. Almost 40 percent of registered companies have completed a digital maturity assessment. In addition, the regional development agencies have so far rolled out six different digitalization support programs for SMEs.

In an effort to overcome the gender gap in the application of digital tools, the project also prepared a report called, “The Women-Friendly Digital Way: Digitalization in the Tourism and Manufacturing Sectors in Türkiye.” The report provides recommendations on how digitalization can be adapted to promote gender equality in technology fields and the broader workforce. 

The Digital Way project was funded by UNDP under its Rapid Response Facility, a financial resource set up in 2020 to help countries devise quick-reaction COVID response measures. 

For more information: 

Deniz Şilliler Tapan, UNDP Türkiye deniz.tapan@undp.org

For information about Digital Way Platform: https://www.dijitalyol.org