Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

In the program where TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council President Nurten Öztürk made the opening speech, designer Dilek Hanif, TOBB Women Entrepreneurs Council Vice President Fatma Aydoğdu, Founding President of Women in Technology Association Zehra Öney, Dedeman Holding Vice President Banu Dedeman and TOBB Samsun KGK Vice President, Screenwriter Zehra Sırımsı talked about the importance of women in business life and their success stories.

Stating that women's support for each other will cause the entrepreneurship ecosystem to become stronger, Salih Zeki Murzioğlu, Chairman of the Council of Directors of Samsun CCI, said, “Entrepreneurship is a key concept to develop and transform the future. However, when we look at the figures today, we see that while there is almost equality in terms of population, this equality is disrupted by women's participation in economic life. The fact that such a power cannot contribute to such an important responsibility is a great loss for our country. Therefore, it is a great opportunity for our country for women and young people to see entrepreneurship as a tool and to be involved in the economy through entrepreneurship. I wish that the organization we have realized today will make a difference and that the sharing here will lead to new successes.”

In his speech, Samsun Governor Orhan Tavlı said, “I would like to express my gratitude to him and his team for taking the power of TOBB together with the strong women of our country and combining this power with you, the women of Samsun, and throwing the first spark of the realization of these projects together with our strong women in Samsun, the city of Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.”

Mayor of Samsun Metropolitan Municipality Halit Doğan said, “Samsun ranks 25^th in equality of opportunity between women and men. Our ranking at this point is a bad ranking for us. We will start our work together with Ms. Nurten. Of course, this is also related to Samsun's ranking in industrial production. Samsun is not in a very good place in the ranking of industrial production. Hopefully, it will be possible to increase the number of these organized industrial zones, increase the added value of the products produced there, increase our export figures, increase the role of women in employment and increase their number. In order to ensure this, we are working together with our honorable governor and our deputies from all parties,” he said.

OKA Secretary General Mehlika Dicle said, “We have carried out many projects for women until today. Beyond the financial support we have provided, we have identified economic, social and spatial transformations. To date, we have created an investment volume of 188 million TL in more than 50 projects to encourage women entrepreneurship. In these projects, we have been instrumental in employing more than 500 women. There are also the activities of the investment support offices of development agencies. We guide investors.”

Within the scope of the program, a “Women's Employment and Women Entrepreneurship Cooperation Protocol” was signed between the institutions. In the programs to be carried out with employers, women will be actively involved in business life by strengthening their professional knowledge and skills.