Mr. Riad Hantou is a foreigner under temporary protection who came to Türkiye at the age of 17 while in the final year of high school. He enrolled in a distance education high school to continue his education. He lives with his mother and brother and he is the sole responsible for his family’s livelihood as his brother is ill. After arriving in Türkiye, Mr. Riad worked in different sectors. He worked in construction, tailoring, and manufacturing before joining an e-commerce company in electronics for three years, where he gained experience in e-commerce.

After working in different companies for short periods, he started working at Galepharma, a pharmaceutical company. He established company’s Arabic website and started exporting to international firms with his previous e-commerce knowledge. Mr. Riad underlines the social cohesion as one of the most important elements of the FOSTER Project and says that he had the opportunity for a quick adaptation to a different culture through his job. He wants to make Galepharma a well-known company in the Middle East and to increase its sales in e-commerce.

Flexia Kablo, founded in 2006, produces copper wire and granule cables. The company entered a growth phase in 2012 and opened a new larger factory in 2018. Under the leadership of Quality Manager and Board Member Mr. Coşkun Kadıoğlu and the Chairman of the Board, Flexia aimed to grow through exporting activities and successfully increased its capacity.

Within the scope of the project, Flexia Kablo has a total of 121 employees, including Turkish citizens and foreigners under temporary protection. All personnel have strengthened their communication and increased their collaboration by learning a foreign language from each other.

Flexia not only purchased raw materials but also created employment thanks to the support received from FOSTER Project Employment Committed SME Finance Support Programme. However, their production almost came to a standstill for a while due to being located in the earthquake affected region. They managed to overcome this challenging period and got their business back on track; the company first employed two employees and then added six more with the support they received. The company aims to grow in the future and sustain their success in the sector.

Mr. Recep Elmas’s entrepreneurial journey began during his high school years. His geography teacher’s discourse about the importance of establishing companies and value-added production shaped Mr. Recep Elmas’s career path. As an active student in university, Mr. Recep Elmas led the formation of a robotics club and served on the student commission of the Chamber of Electrical Engineers.

In 2011, when the Ministry of Industry provided direct support to new graduates, Mr. Recep Elmas applied for the “Techno-Initiative Capital Support” Project. While serving in the military, Mr. Recep Elmas took three days off to write this project and, upon returning from the military, he was called for an interview and established his first company as a first step into the business world. He then continued his journey by establishing his second company, Elmastek Mühendislik, in Izmir in 2018.

Mr. Recep Elmas manages administrative tasks as the company owner and handles product design and engineering services as an electrical and electronics engineer. Elmastek Mühendislik produces electronic control boards specifically for various machine manufacturers and factories. The company also writes the embedded software for these control boards in-house and possesses a high-tech assembly line. This assembly line can process 40,000 components per hour, and the production processes are carried out on this line.

Recep Elmas learned about the FOSTER Project Employment Committed SME Finance Support Programme through KOSGEB. He invested in machines for cable cutting, crimping, socketing, and injection production with the financial support he received. Within the scope of the project, retaining its two current employment, Elmastek Mühendislik also expanded its team by employing two foreigners under international protection. This support allowed him making investments related to cable machines by increasing his machine park and capacities. Mr. Recep Elmas states that “This investment would not have been possible without the financial support”.

Thanks to the financial support, Elmastek Mühendislik not only achieved capacity expansion but also set ambitious goals for the future. The company aims to open a branch in Europe and make a strong entry into the European market with their new products and increased capacities.

Mr. Recep Elmas’s determination and commitment to innovation form the keystone of Elmastek Engineering’s success. Elmastek Mühendislik aims to achieve even greater successes in the field of technology and engineering in the future.

The second round of the information meetings started on February 5, 2024, in Kahramanmaraş. Subsequent information meetings took place in the project provinces of Konya, Ankara, Gaziantep, Kilis, Hatay, Şanlıurfa, Adana, Mersin, Kocaeli, Istanbul Anatolian Side, Istanbul European Side, Kayseri, Bursa, Izmir, and Mardin.

During the Information Meetings, details were provided regarding the Employment Committed SME Support Programme Second Call, which opened for applications on January 29, 2024. Under the Second Call, with a deadline for applications set on February 27, 2024, SMEs will be eligible for grant support of up to TRY 1 million. Eligible SMEs will be able to use this support for personnel, machinery, equipment, molds, software and training expenses.

The progress of the Empowering the Private Sector to Foster Social and Economic Cohesion in Türkiye (FOSTER) Project was discussed during the 6th Steering Committee Meeting, which took place in a hybrid format on February 7. Representatives from the European Union, KfW Development Bank, and our stakeholders attended the meeting held at KOSGEB.

Thanks to the FOSTER Project Employment Committed SME Support Programme, Baran Tur, a Gaziantep-based company, has not only retained the jobs of two Turkish citizens but also employed two foreigners under temporary protection. The company stands out with its environmentally conscious business practices, actively addressing global issues such as the climate crisis and resource scarcity. Committed to fulfilling its environmental and social responsibilities, the company takes a proactive stance. As the FOSTER team, we met with them to discuss how they manage these processes. Ms. Zeynep Aydaş, the Quality Assurance Specialist at the company, answered our questions.

How did you become acquainted with the carbon footprint?

We learned about carbon footprint during the Green Deal process. More precisely, we became aware of the carbon footprint after our country’s sustainability goals were announced in 2016, and we learnt how important the carbon footprint is through a training provided by the Chamber of Commerce.  Afterwards, we began to take action on this topic questioning why we are not creating awareness about it and why we are not calculating our carbon footprint.

We installed rooftop solar panel systems. We completed the first phase and are now working on the second phase with the government support. To reduce water usage, we made a seemingly small but an important change by converting all the faucets used by employees to sensor-operated ones after discovering that many faucets were forgotten and left open, sometimes even over the weekends. So, we realized the importance of sensor-operated faucets. We made significant financial gains from both solar panels and water reduction, as well as moral gains, as employees’ awareness raised. Today, if we can reduce our environmental damage by even just one unit, we leave a significant mark as humanity.

Do you have any suggestions for other SMEs regarding this matter?

In my opinion, they should make an investigation on the issue and assess themselves. They should initially analyze things like how much electricity they consume, how many kW of energy is used, or how many tons of water are being used, and what the losses are.

They should also evaluate things like how much gasoline is spent on company vehicles for transportation or how much thermal power is consumed for heating in terms of natural gas, coal, fossil fuels, and what the costs are. Because when we controlled all these things, we came up with very serious projects.

I didn’t mention it earlier, but I would like to mention it now. For example, we don’t use natural gas or fossil fuels. In the past, 20 to 30 tons of coal were used annually solely for heating. Right now, we do not pay for natural gas or coal. Instead, we use an exchanger to transmit heat from the compressor’s hot oil to the water. Thus, we gain from pumping water into the radiators as well.

Finally, you have FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certifications, and how have you benefitted from them?

If you export to Europe, you indeed have to be careful. Today, when you buy a T-shirt from major brands, you see the FSC emblem on the information sheets sent in the package. It’s a tiny piece of paper, but it means that the paper is produced from sustainable forests, permitted forests, or forests under control, which is what FSC stands for. We also have this perspective.

We thank you for your sensitivity and great efforts.

The KOSGEB delegation, led by Vice President Mr. Bilal Kendirci, came together with the SMEs benefitting from the Employment Committed SME Support Programme, within the scope of FOSTER Project in Adana, Mersin, Gaziantep, and Şanlıurfa.

During the visits, SMEs benefiting from the Employment Committed SME Support Programme gave feedback on the monitoring and payment processes, and SMEs stated that the supports are very valuable in terms of increasing their production and employment capacities and strengthening their competitiveness levels.