ABİGEM (European Turkish Business Development Centres)

The European Turkish Business Development Centres Project was launched in 2002 under the leadership of the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce with the support of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (“TOBB”) and the European Commission to improve the competitiveness of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (“SME”) in Turkey. The Project mainly aims to contribute to regional development by providing SMEs with such information, training and consultancy services they may need to improve their international competitiveness and expansion and become sustainable in their markets.
In addition to that, the Project also aims to encourage the use of environmentally-friendly products and technologies, the adoption by SMEs of a globally recognized quality system as the basic rule of becoming sustainable, and to achieve a nation-wide presence as an organization.
Within the scope of the Project, more than 4000 SMEs have been provided with consultancy services and 5320 others with training services, and 27 women entrepreneurs were helped build their own companies.
The total budget of the Project is Euro 6.211,00, 90% of which was granted by the European Commission and the remaining 10% by the Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce.
ABİGEM, which gained the legal status of a not-for-profit corporation upon completion of the Project in 2006, continues operating under the name ABİGEM A.Ş.