By Medina Malagić
“Sarajevo Times” had the opportunity to speak with Özgür Bayraktar, a young entrepreneur in the IT industry from Turkey. He came to BiH to survey the situation regarding the IT sector and expressed their amazement of the talent and immense potential in our country.
Özgür Bayraktar formerly worked for Zinga, the biggest social gaming company in the world and is now seeking to do more entrepreneurial work in the tech industry. Based on what he has seen in BiH so far, he believes that the advantage in this country is that it has amazing developers and engineers that would be a shining star in the IT industry.
BiH Is An Emerging Market With Talented Developers
Bayraktar pointed out that Istanbul is an emerging hub between Europe, the Middle East and North Africa in the IT sector and its potential for development in the IT industry is great. From what he has seen so far, BiH is an emerging market and if there are investments here, then a return investment will occur within several years as opposed to other countries, where you would have to stay up to 10 years to see visible signs of investment returns.
Currently, much of the outsourcing from Turkey takes place in China. However, due to the large time difference between Turkey and China, there are inevitably numerous impediments. An advantage to doing business with BiH is that there is no time difference between BiH and Turkey. Thus, Bayraktar points out that it would not be difficult to work together and run a business. Online meetings could easily be conducted. In addition, there are several flights a day from Sarajevo to Istanbul, so the two cities are closely connected.
According to Bayraktar, if a company wants to work with other countries, particularly in Western Europe, it is very expensive in the IT industry. This is especially a concern for IT start-ups that have to control costs. Thus, combined with the talented individuals in the tech industry in BiH who would work for half the price than in other countries, this is something that has to be promoted to the world.
BiH Needs More PR To Truly Develop as an IT Hub
“I believe one basic thing-Ideas are nothing, execution is everything”, said Bayraktar for “Sarajevo Times”. Despite the vast potential he sees in our country, he said he was surprised that not many people know anything about BiH. Thus, he says that it is important to showcase the talent that is to be found here so that Bosnian-Herzegovinians in the IT industry would have the opportunity to do business with global companies.
He pointed out that even though there is not that many IT companies in BiH, this is an irrelevant fact when it comes to an emerging IT market. He drew a comparison with Israel, a small country but with an IT industry that primarily conducts global work and has a developed outsourcing strategy. This is something that can be done in BiH and the country could be a star of outsourcing projects, which does not require thousands of developers.
He sees partnership, cooperation, and a good PR strategy that would allow other countries to truly see the untapped potential in our country in the IT sector. By doing more business with people in BiH in the tech industry, this would be demonstrable proof to countries throughout the world of what BiH has to offer. Bayraktar said that he came here with an open mind, and now sees that if people in the IT sector in BiH were given a chance to demonstrate their skills, this would pave the way for other countries to gain awareness of the potential of BiH’s emerging IT market and follow their lead.
