FEZ "Vitebsk" and the Chamber of Commerce of Turkish Kocaeli will develop enterprise cooperation

The FEZ "Vitebsk" and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the city of Kocaeli, Turkey, intend to promote the development of cooperation between enterprises of the two countries and to join forces in promoting them to new markets. This is stipulated by the partnership agreement signed during the recent visit of the Vitebsk delegation to Turkey, as reported by Yulia Mikolaichik, assistant to the head of the administration of the Vitebsk FEZ.

The document creates a basis for the exchange of experience and promotion of cooperation between businesses of the two countries in the innovative and technological spheres. Thanks to the agreement, partners will be able to increase the efficiency of legal assistance and legal support for the trade and investment activities of companies. The document forms the basis for combining the potential of partners in conducting joint events for business circles to exchange experience. All this will contribute to the growth of trade and economic turnover between the two regions.

During the negotiations held, an agreement was reached on a visit of a Turkish business delegation to Vitebsk in the second quarter of 2018. In addition, the possibilities of signing partnership agreements between the FEZ "Vitebsk" and the Foreign Economic Relations Council of Turkey DEIK, as well as the Gebze Organized Industrial Zone (an analogue of Belarusian FEZs), are currently being worked out. The significant potential of trade and economic relations with Kocaeli is evidenced by the fact that 13 industrial zones and three technoparks operate in its territory.

The Chamber of Commerce and Industry includes more than 2.5 thousand enterprises and organizations, including Ford, Hyundai, Honda, Pirelli, Bridgestone, and Goodyear plants. More than 80 business structures of Kocaeli are among the top 500 Turkish companies. The Gebze Organized Industrial Zone, founded in 1986, is located near Istanbul and covers an area of 537 hectares. 156 companies are registered in it, including more than 40 foreign ones, whose exports are estimated at over $1 billion, and the volume of attracted investments is almost $1.4 billion. The FEZ "Vitebsk" was established in 1999, occupies a territory of over 2.4 thousand hectares and consists of 13 sectors, in the

in Vitebsk, 4 in Orsha, and one each in Vitebsk and Postavy districts. 37 enterprises with capital from 12 countries operate as SEZ residents in such fields as mechanical engineering, electronics, veterinary medicine, chemical, fuel, food, light industry, and others. The total number of employees is almost 10.8 thousand people.

BELTA.