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SMEs have shown great interest to Employment Committed SMEs Support Programme, implemented under Empowering the Private Sector to Foster Social and Economic Cohesion in Türkiye – FOSTER Project.

Within the scope of the programme, applications had started on December 26, 2023, SMEs submitted their proposals on the following subjects with the main theme of “Improving Competitiveness and Employment”:

• Capacity Building (human resources, machinery, equipment, etc.)
• Increasing market share
• Product development and diversification
• Increasing the added value of the product
• Digitalization
• Increasing energy efficiency
• Transition to green production (recycling/recovery and collection/separation activities etc.)
• Business-to-business (B2B) transactions

According to the calendar of the Call for Proposals, the first evaluation process of submitted proposals for the Programme has begun and accepted proposals will be announced on April 27 – 28, 2023

Personnel, machinery, equipment, molds, software and training expenses support will be provided to accepted project proposals within the Programme.

Eligible SMEs can obtain grant support up to 1 million Turkish Liras depending on their employment commitment. Employment will be supported for at least 2,788 people through the grant support for SMEs located in Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Gaziantep, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Kilis, Kocaeli, Konya, Mardin, Mersin and Şanlıurfa. Employment will be supported through creation and retention of formal employment.

Employment Committed SMEs Support Programme is run under the FOSTER Project which financed by the European Union (EU), managed by the KfW Development Bank and implemented by KOSGEB.

SMEs have shown great interest to information meetings held in 15 provinces within the scope of Empowering the Private Sector to Foster Social and Economic Cohesion in Türkiye (FOSTER) Project.

More than 1,000 SMEs representatives attended the information meetings held in Adana, Ankara, Bursa, Gaziantep, Hatay, İstanbul, İzmir, Kahramanmaraş, Kayseri, Kilis, Kocaeli, Konya, Mardin, Mersin and Şanlıurfa.

The details of the Employment Committed SME Support Programme and Employment Committed SME Finance Support Programme were shared with participants. SMEs’ representatives addressed their questions about code of practice and conditions of projects to experts during the meetings.

Within the scope of Employment Committed SME Support Programme, a total of up to EUR 35 million of grant support will be provided to at least 697 businesses. Employment will be supported for at least 2,788 people through creation and retention of formal employment.

The other component of the Project, Employment Committed SME Finance Support Programme provides support for financing costs of loans for at least 1,500 SMEs in return of creation and retention of formal employment for at least 3,000 people.

FOSTER Project is financed by the European Union (EU), managed by the KfW Development Bank and implemented by KOSGEB.

Information Meetings within the scope of “Empowering the Private Sector to Foster Social and Economic Cohesion in Türkiye (FOSTER)” Project, which is financed by the European Union (EU), managed by KfW Development Bank and run by KOSGEB, continue in project provinces.

Information Meetings that started in Ankara continued in Konya, Gaziantep, Mardin, Kilis, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, İstanbul, Bursa, İzmir, Kocaeli and, Kayseri.

Hundreds of SMEs showed interest in meetings where Employment Committed SME Finance Support Programme and Employment Committed SME Support Programme were explained.

SMEs’ questions about the programmes were answered by the specialists during the meetings.

Information Meetings will continue at the following places and dates: