CORUM CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

The Corum Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Corum CCI), which was established in 1910, is one of the old and experienced institutions in Turkey. The main purpose of Corum CCI is to increase the resilience and sustainability of SMEs nationally and internationally, contribute to the development of SMEs, to promote entrepreneurship in the region. It has approximately 5400 members, 70% in which are SMEs. The Chamber staff is trained in various fields and advises member companies on business matters such as import/export, business agreements, business organization, business advice for EU or local funds, taxation, labor law, legislation, regulations, rules, and trade practices. The additional mission of the Corum CCI is to improve the skilled workforce in the province of Corum through digitalization. In addition, The Corum CCI is an institution that acts as a bridge between university-industry cooperation and the private and public sectors in our province.

The Corum CCI has operated as an office within the Enterprise Europe Network since 2009. After 2015, it continues to work as a consortium partner in this structure. During this period, training was provided to the staff of our Chamber's business network. Awareness of the region was raised through business meetings, bilateral business meetings, and one-on-one meetings with businesses, training, and seminars. Business visits to internationalize companies were conducted. New service units were added to the Chamber. It supports the Enterprise Europe Network by setting up numerous units such as IPR Patent and Trademark Unit, Cluster Centre, Foreign Trade Intelligence Unit, Export Support Office.

The New Term Single Market European Enterprise Network project (2021-2025) will open up a new vision for the international SMEs of the Corum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, helping them becomes environmentally friendly businesses resource-efficient by raising awareness about climate and the environment. The consortium must address all SMEs with sustainability, resilience, and digitalization capacity. In this process, the Corum CCI is a chamber with an organizational structure that can provide SME capacity building, sustainability, digitalization, regional integration, innovation, access to finance and EU funding, feedback services to SMEs. It aims to specialize in providing advice on access to finance, EU legislation and standards, new sustainable business models, circular economy, green entrepreneurship, resource efficiency, and clean energy, in cooperation with relevant service providers such as clusters. Supporting companies' access to international markets and business opportunities, internationalization, awareness-raising (including workshops and webinars) for SMEs to improve their business models regarding the challenges and opportunities of digital technologies will help the network to receive feedback from SMEs.

Corum CCI, which built its new service building in 2017 with the concept of environmentally friendly green building, aims to achieve the position of a chamber with this certificate in Turkey by obtaining the green building certificate applied for in 2019 in 2022. The Corum CCI, which has signed visionary projects to raise awareness, has an accredited facility that carries out carbon and emission measurements of businesses with the European Union Business Development Center Environmental Impacts and Test Measurement Laboratory. With the experience and sensitivity gained from these processes, it aims to specialize within the network, renew its knowledge and raise awareness among member SMEs by supporting their activities and production processes.