“Strengthening Refugee Entrepreneurship in Turkey” Hatay Workshop was organized on 22 March at Erol Bilecik Kongre Merkezi with the attendance of public institutions, refugee entrepreneurs, Turkish business people, and representatives of non-governmental organizations. Opening speeches were delivered by INGEV Director Berk Çoker, UNHCR Hatay Field Office Specialist Rıfat Kerim Menemencioğlu and UNHCR Competency Programmes Responsible Asuman Baba at the workshop, organized by “ActHuman Social Inclusion Initiative”, an INGEV initiative in cooperation with IPC (İstanbul Policy Center), with the cooperation of UNHCR, and found granted by European Union and the Republic of Turkey.
Foreign Tade Specialist Ali Can Kahya from T.R. Ministry of Economics General Directorate of Incentive Implementation And Foreign Investment delivered his presentation titled “Governmental Incentives for Building Local Entrepreneurship”. Afterwards, INGEV Board of Trustees Member Attorney Arkın Eyvazoğlu gave insights to refugee entrepreneurs in his presentation titled “Legal Obligations of Establishing Incorporations and After their Establishments”. After the important presentations, a video story named “Build Life, Build Trade”, prepared by INGEV telling the trade lives of 8 refugee entrepreneurs living in İstanbul, Hatay, Mersin and Adana, was watched and got credit by the attendees.
At the “Information Sharing about Social Cohesion and Introduction Session”, refugee entrepreneurs, Turkish business people, public institutions, and NGO representatives sought answers to questions such as what are the opportunities of business promotion and the needs of refugee corporations in Mersin, what kind of support is needed in Mersin, how refugee corporations can be integrated better into the business life in Mersin, and what kind of legal and financial information do refugee corporations need. At this session, which was very interactive, Hatay Turkish Employment Agency İŞKUR Province Manager Ziya Yüksel, Burhan Kahraman from Provincial Directorate of Commerce, DOĞAKA (Eastern Mediterranean Development Agency) Sector-Specific Support and Programming Unit Chairman Serdar Çınar, Hatay Chamber Of Merchants And Craftsmen Chairman Abdülgani Kit, DASİFED (Doğu Akdeniz Sanayici ve İşadamları Derneği) General Secretariate Onur Dönmezer, Antakya Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foreign Trade Department Director İbrahim Eminoğlu, Reyhanlı Syria Chamber of Commerce and Industry members over 30 in number, and business people of Hatay from various sectors.
