President of KOSGEB Cevahir Uzkurt (Ph. D):
-KOSGEB has so far signed 78 agreements and 7 action plans with 73 organizations from 60 countries and 5 international organizations.
- 16 countries visited Turkey last year which are: Afghanistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Gambia, Qatar, Kenya, Colombia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Somalia, Sudan, Tatarstan, Thailand and Jordan.
-Study visits were made to Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Colombia, Mongolia and Tunisia. KOSGEB shared its experience with these countries.
President of KOSGEB Dr. Cevahir Uzkurt (Ph. D) stated that KOSGEB has so far signed 78 agreements and 7 action plans with 73 organizations from 60 countries and 5 international organizations.
Uzkurt gave information on KOSGEB's international cooperation activities.
Uzkurt said that the experience of KOSGEB in the scope of SMEs have been transferred to foreign counterpart institutions and that has contributed to the recognition of Turkey.
While supporting the activities aimed at increasing the trade volume of SMEs and increasing institutional capacities of counterpart organizations in the light of good practices of KOSGEB, Uzkurt stated that KOSGEB has been taken as a “role model” in many countries.
In this context, Uzkurt pointed out that KOSGEB have signed memoranda of understanding in order to support the external market opening process of SMEs and to share the institutional capacity obtained with respect to the support models with the counterpart institutions abroad. He said “KOSGEB has signed 78 agreements and 7 action plans with 73 organizations from 60 countries and 5 international organizations.”
He stated that 16 countries visited Turkey last year which are: Afghanistan, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Gambia, Qatar, Kenya, Colombia, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Somalia, Sudan, Tatarstan, Thailand and Jordan. And study visits were made to Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Colombia, Mongolia and Tunisia. He mentioned that KOSGEB shared its experience with these countries.
-"Turkey, first in the SME Policy Index"
Uzkurt said that KOSGEB is carrying out work for the integration of the European Union (EU) in order to move the SMEs and entrepreneurs all the way forward. Uzkurt,stated that KOSGEB is the national coordinator of the EU programme "Competitiveness of Enterprises and SMEs" (COSME 2014-2020) which aims to increase the financing opportunities of SMEs, to improve access to markets, to improve framework conditions for SMEs and to encourage entrepreneurship with the budget of 2.3 billion Euros.
Noting that KOSGEB was appointed as the "national coordinator" responsible for the implementation of the principles of the "European Small Business Act", Uzkurt said: "Within the scope of the studies about implementation of European Small Business Act in Turkey and Balkan countries, SME Policy Index 2016 report was prepared by Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Commission (EC), the European Training Foundation (ETF), the European Reconstruction and Development Bank (EBRD) and participant countries, Turkey was in the first place. "
Uzkurt stated that KOSGEB also conducts cooperation activities with international organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Eight Emerging Countries (D8), the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIT) and the Confidence Building Measures Conference in Asia (CICA).
Reminding that the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN) activities have been carried out under the coordination of KOSGEB since 2008, Uzkurt stated that related work is being done by 11 consortia to increase access and cooperation of SMEs to the EU market under the "access to markets" component during the COSME period. He said that, KOSGEB also conducts projects in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) on energy efficiency.