Cooperation agreement signed between SPARK and ATSO

Within the scope of the cooperation agreement signed between the Antakya Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ATSO) and the international non-governmental organization SPARK, trainings on financial literacy, business development and similar topics will be provided to Turkish and Syrian entrepreneurs and businesses.

With the cooperation agreement signed within the scope of the project "Creating Employment by Providing Better Access to Finance for Syrians under Temporary Protection and Host Communities", abbreviated as "INCLUDED" and carried out with the financial support of the European Union, a "Syria Support Desk" was established within the ATSO and Turkish and Syrian It will be easier for business people to contribute to the country's economy by taking advantage of regional export opportunities and the services offered by the chamber.

Within the scope of the project carried out by SPARK, it is aimed to increase the access of businesses founded by Syrians to financial instruments, to make their commercial activities more conscious and to establish a healthy business approach. Thus, it will contribute to the integration of these companies operating in our country into the national economy.

Speaking about the cooperation agreement signed between ATSO and SPARK, SPARK Turkey Country Manager Halil Can Emre“We aim to improve the welfare of local people and refugees by increasing employment with the support we provide to Turkish and Syrian SMEs, and to increase the relations of solidarity between the two communities. Established within the body of ATSO, the Syria Support Desk will enable Syrian business people to access commercial support services that they cannot access due to the language barrier.”

Chairman of the Board of ATSO Hikmet Cincin “As the most active non-governmental organization of our province with the activities we have carried out for years, we have tried to provide the best service to both our members and our city. We continued to increase the added value of our chamber, while striving to improve the service we offer to our members by carrying out dozens of projects with both our chamber and our affiliates. As ATSO, we will continue our efforts to achieve the best with different projects and to be successful in providing equal and quality service to all our members. We would like to thank SPARK, who supported us in the past to improve the services we offer to our members, both with our chamber and with our affiliates, and the EU, which supported this project. As can be seen, we have a long-term cooperation and this cooperation will continue to increase.”

With the financial support of the European Union, the non-governmental organization SPARK continues its activities focused on refugees and host communities in cooperation with the chambers of commerce and industry in Adana, Gaziantep, Hatay and Şanlıurfa. The organization that carries out the INCLUSIVE project explained its priority as supporting the growth of micro, small and medium-sized businesses to provide quality job opportunities with business skills training. A total of 800 people will benefit from the trainings, which will be held in many areas where needed, especially financial literacy, business skills, business planning, marketing, innovation and digitalization.

SPARK, which has been working in Turkey since 2013, has directly supported the establishment of more than 270 new businesses since it implemented entrepreneurship and support projects for SMEs. It provided employment to approximately 1,500 people or kept it employment with its support.

The first steps of the cooperation between SPARK and ATSO were taken with the “E-Commerce and E-Export Conference” event, which was held last March with the financial support of the European Union, bringing together Syrian and Turkish entrepreneurs and SMEs. In an environment where Syrian and Turkish business people came together to evaluate digitalization opportunities and establish inter-company connections, sectoral information was transferred by experts to small and medium-sized businesses that want to be involved in international trade through e-commerce, and businesses were encouraged to export.

Based on 2019 data, there are 15,000 official businesses established by Syrians in Turkey. The majority of these are in the category of small and medium-sized enterprises with 10 or less employees.

📩 18/08/2022 11:04