Turkey, EU chambers and exchanges to work together

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - More than 50 chambers and exchanges from Turkey and EU-members will work together on 19 projects, the chairman of the head of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges said on Wednesday.

The initiative will have several focuses including digitalization, higher value-added agricultural production, women entrepreneurs, international networks and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), Rifat Hisarciklioglu told a Turkey-EU Business Dialogue (TEBD) meeting in Istanbul.

Within the scope of the TEBD, the EU provided €2.5 million ($2.8 million) in grants for 19 projects, he noted.

"There were around 100 applications from Turkey for this project, 19 projects were accepted from 26 provinces and one [other] county," Hisarciklioglu underlined.

The project will involve a partnership between 28 chambers and commodity exchanges from Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Belgium with 30 of their Turkish counterparts.

Gabriel Munera Vinals, Deputy Head of the EU Delegation to Turkey said the country continued to be the EU’s fifth largest trade partner, adding that it was also an investment base for the European businesses.

He expressed that the bloc held such initiatives in high regard and supported the TEBD’s projects.

The TEBD, established by the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry as well as TOBB, aims to strengthen the understanding between Turkish Chambers and their counterparts in the EU.