ABIGEM East Marmara
East Marmara EU Business Centre (ABİGEM DM) was established in compliance with EU MEDA program to assist SMEs in the region to penetrate more easily into international markets. ABİGEM DM, serves SMEs by assisting them construct better managerial and technical infrastructure and has the further objective of improving the performance of SMEs in Turkey, in particular by enhancing their competitiveness and international networking activities. The ownership structure of ABİGEM DM includes regional and national influential business players including Kocaeli Chamber of Industry, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, Sakarya Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Düzce Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Yalova Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Bolu Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Gebze Organized Industrial Zone Technology Park.
Being partner of Europe Enterprise Network, ABİGEM DM provides training programs under the tittles of R&D, 7th Framework , EU Funded Projects and advisory services on R&D, Technology audit, Technology transfer, 7th Framework Programs etc. ABİGEM DM also provides assistance for international business development of SMEs in the region.
ABİGEM DM has been official partner of b2fair Organisation, that was established under EU Funded project, since 2004 and under this partnership organised several matchmaking events in Germany, Luxembourg, Czech Republic, France, Morocco and Turkey. In 2012, East Marmara ABİGEM in close cooperation with Luxembourg Chamber of Commerce organised the first edition of Match4Industry Business Matching event in TOSB Automotive Industrial Park in Kocaeli, Turkey. 65 companies participated in the event and 95 bilateral meeting realised during the event.
ABİGEM DM is also one of the event organisers on another EU Funded project named “STOP4 Business” and in May 2010 successfully implemented a matchmaking event in connection with TurkeyBuild 2010 in İstanbul, where 84 companies took part in 442 meetings. Main focus of the matchmaking event was sustainable construction.
With its contacts in Luxembourg, UK, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary and Spain, ABİGEM DM has been supporting SMEs to conduct approximately 5500 bilateral meetings since 2005.
ABİGEM DM has 10 fulltime staff who previously worked for EU Funded projects. 50 experts that work project basis are also placed in ABİGEM DM expert pool.
Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce
Turkish Chambers and Commodity Chambers law depends on public chamber system.
Companies have to be a member of the chambers. Turkish system contains many similar points with many European Union countries. (France, Germany etc.)
It is understood that the chamber was founded ın 1897, but it launched it’s first official document in 1945.
For many years, Izmit Chamber of Commerce and Industry were united under one structure. In December 1988 Gebze Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in June 1989 Kocaeli Chamber of Industry, in 1999 Körfez Chamber of Commerce were founded, thus, The entity was renamed as Izmit Chamber of Commerce.
Our chamber has changed its name with the agreement of the KCC assembly in 2008. After this date, the name of our chamber has changed from Izmit Chamber of Commerce to Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce (KCC).
With the changes in local government and increase in the number of townships has redefined the authorization borders of KCC
According to this new change, all counties except for Gebze and Körfez are now covered by the service of our chamber. Our chambers activities continues through agencies and service offices in Kandıra, Derince, Gölcük and Karamürsel.
After the division, our chamber has maintained it’s corporate structure in a very short time. Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce has been eligible to get many quality certificates which are below.
According to the data obtained in February 2018, Kocaeli Chamber of Commerce has 13.502 members in total.
