ANKARA - Directorate General for Development and Support of Small and Medium Scale Industry (KOSGEB) Chairman Erkan Gurkan said on Saturday that they would bring together Turkish businessmen with German and Turkish businessmen abroad with EUROKON 2003 organization.
''Platform of Turkish and European Entrepreneurs EUROKON 2003'', which will be held in Dortmund, Germany with the cooperation of KOSGEB and Turkey Studies Center's (TAM) between October 2 and 4, was promoted with press conference.
Releasing a speech, KOSGEB Chairman Gurkan said that they convened to make widespread the cooperation with TAM and they would sign a protocol regarding this issue in coming days.
Noting that they would bring together Turkish businessmen with Turkish and German businessmen abroad with this organization and cooperation in many issues would start, Gurkan said that researches of Turkish firms were made by making cooperation with Germans.
TAM Director Prof. Faruk Sen said that a total of 82 thousand Turkish people established their firms themselves in 91 sectors within the borders of the European Union (EU) and added that their investment amount exceeded 12 billion Euros and they provided employment to 450 thousand people. He said, ''this means European Turkish people are not only working as worker but also produce work in their own firms.''
Noting that EUROKON 2003 was supported by Industry and Trade Minister Ali Coskun and Economy and Labor Ministry of North Rhine Westphalia, Sen called all small and medium scale enterprises in Turkey to attend this meeting.
Sen said, ''Turkey has entered EU in respect of its people living in Europe.''
Sen noted, ''our three million 800 thousand people live in Europe. We have a very active mass of people there. Our export to EU is over 55 percent of our total export and so does our import. Turkish small and medium scale enterprises have an incredible effect in food materials and textile sectors. In tourism sector, 19 Turkish tour operators in Germany bring German tourists to Turkey.''
Noting that only food consumption of Turkish people living within EU borders was 22 billion Euros and 10 billion of it was Turkish made products, Sen said that their target was to increase especially Turkish made food materials in the consumption of Turkish people in Europe.
Dr. Mehmet Ali Karademir who is responsible from fair part of EUROKON 2003 gave information about the platform.
Noting that they called the organization a platform because businessmen congress, cooperation exchange and fair were interconnecting, Karademir said that they had 11 workshops in businessmen congress and they brought together Turkish and German entrepreneurs. He added that they were expecting 500-700 entrepreneurs from Turkey.
(GC-Öª) 23.08.2003