Enlargement of the European-Turkish Business Centres

 (BCs) Network to Sivas, Hatay, Batman and Van

The ABiGEM-3 project, which operates with a budget of 8.5 million Euros funded by the EU, is an initiative carried out under the leadership of TOBB and hosted by Sivas, Hatay, Batman and Van Chambers of Commerce and Industry. Following the launch of the project in 2011, four business development centers were established in these provinces.

The project is managed by EU experts from a project office in Ankara and assisted by support staff. Local experts have now been selected to work in each ABIGEM and additional local and international experts can be drafted in for specific tasks.

Targets: Although the main target is for the 4 Business Centers to be sustainable after EU funding has ended in 2014, the second target is that the ABIGEMs will be key drivers to generate positive change in their respective regions.

For this purpose the 4 ABiGEMs will:
• Support competitiveness of their region through networking and acting as a catalyst
• Promote innovation thus supporting regional economic development

In order to determine the specific needs of each regional business community in terms of training and consulting services, the ABIGEMs conducted region-specific needs assessment studies. The ABIGEMs will define their region-specific service portfolio based on the results of these studies.