Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Kuşadası Station, established to strengthen the regional economy and communities, focuses on the digitization of Turkish society and economy in line with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Kuşadası Station, which aims to increase the digital and financial transformation of individuals, businesses and entrepreneur candidates, hosts a series of different trainings, programs and workshops for communities ready to cross borders to reach global markets.

Kuşadası Station, which will provide people and businesses with access to the knowledge, skills and resources they need to grow, also offers a physical space where different communities can exchange ideas and work together.

TOBB Board Member Cengiz Günay mentioned in his online speech that they aim to develop the digital skills of the private sector and to settle the next generation of entrepreneurship and underlined the studies carried out in this regard.

Emphasizing that Turkey is one of the countries that adapts the fastest to innovations and new technologies, Günay said, “We are among the countries that use social media platforms the most in the world. We follow every development in the digital world. But we also want to produce these technologies. We train all our members on digitalization, e-commerce because the world goes here. Now everyone is shifting their business, their trade, their social life online. As the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, we aim and work for the development of digital skills of the private sector and the establishment of a new generation of entrepreneurship. The reason for this is the development of our country. Again, as the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey, we have implemented the Enterprise Fund Project, which will mentor SMEs in the process of digital transformation. We invite all our SMEs to Smart SME and give them trainings on digitalization and e-commerce.”

Facebook Turkey and Azerbaijan Director of Public Policy Sezen Yeşil also spoke about the community center in her online speech:

“When we launched Facebook Station, which we opened in İstanbul, our first community center in Turkey, we promised that our initiatives would not be limited to İstanbul. We have acted so that people all over Turkey could benefit from them. With our satellite centers that we have opened and operating in different cities, including the Kuşadası satellite center, where we signed the protocol today, we have moved one step closer to our goal of implementing Facebook Station all over the country. SheMeansBusiness, which we have prepared to increase the digital skills of women entrepreneurs in the future; SMEs Without Borders that we have developed for our SMEs, Stand Out in Trade, online trade, export and marketing trainings; Under Control Program, which we designed to improve online security; We aim to carry out training programs and workshops focusing on a number of different topics such as the Facebook Civil Society Program in all our community centers all over Turkey. Our aim is to provide support for SMEs, businesses and NGOs in Turkey to improve themselves in the digital world.”

Kuşadası Mayor Ömer Günel underlined that the idea of Kuşadası Station came about with education programs compatible with the changing and digitizing world, “Based on the needs of Kuşadası in the tourism sector, we originally planned this place as a vocational training center. But when I visited Facebook Station, my whole thinking changed. I stayed close to four hours. The young collaborators of Habitat Association gave us very nice presentations there. In our country, which is moving towards a completely different place with a changing and digitizing world, the idea that education should change and take direction according to expectations has been fully embodied. The vocational training centers I just mentioned will not lose their importance, they will exist, but I have always believed that the expressions of Generation Z and Generation Y, which everyone says persistently and with stability today, should now have some embodied centers. With this collaboration with habitat association and with Habitat's co-hosts, we decided to do a completely different job with both Chambers and Facebook and other institutions that have a say in the digital world. Kuşadası Station came up with these ideas.”

Stating that their close relationship with Kuşadası Municipality has contributed greatly to the implementation of the project, Habitat Association Chairman Sezai Hazır said: “It is easy to open the spaces, but it is much more important to fill them. That's why we're going to a consortium as Habitat Society. We have essential partners in the consortium. We don't want it to be small, we want it to be big and for everyone. KAGİDER is an undisputed institution in terms of entrepreneurship. We're going to organize all the events here together. Endeavor, on the other hand, is a very important institution for entrepreneurs to exit. They're going to move their event here. In other words, we did not only come to Kuşadası as Habitat, we brought the İstanbul entrepreneurship ecosystem here.”

After the opening speeches, the event continued with a panel called “New Entrepreneurship Opportunities in Private Sector, Public and Civil Society Cooperation”, moderated by Endeavor Turkey Secretary General Aslı Kurul Türkmen.

Türkonfed Chairman Orhan Turan, KAGİDER Chairman Emine Erdem, Coca-Cola Company Turkey General Manager Başak Karaca, EU Presidency Financial Cooperation and Project Implementation General Manager Bülent Özcan, Trendyol Executive Board Member Ozan Acar and ARYA Women's Investment Platform Founder Ahu Serter were present at the panel.