Since 2002, hundreds of people in Southeast Turkey have received training on entrepreneurship which provided them the opportunity to set up businesses or acquire jobs; dozens of companies in the region have also received training on commerce and investment making, as well as capacity building, management and new trends in trading; and an equal number of other companies benefited from consultancy services which helped them prepare feasibility studies and work plans to improve their businesses. Entrepreneur Support Centres (GİDEMs) in four major cities of the GAP Region, established within the framework of the project jointly conducted by the UNDP, the European Commission and the GAP Regional Development Agency, have opened up "windows of opportunity" in the truest sense for the potential entrepreneurs of the region. The Textile Training Centre in Adıyaman, the Centre for the Development of Agriculture-based Industries in Adıyaman and Şanlıurfa, the Centre for the Development of Women's Entrepreneurship and the Entrepreneurship Centre of Dicle University, both in Diyarbakır, and Silver-Working and Home Wine-Making Centre in Mardin are a few of these "windows of opportunity"... We visited and toured the Textile Training Centre in Adıyaman with GIDEM's Adıyaman Office Coordinator Mr. Sırrı Özen. Here is what he told the New Horizons about the activities of this important training centre.

Sırrı Özen: Here, at Adıyaman Textile Training Centre, we educate young people to become qualified workers in the ready-to-wear sector. We have 52 machines, including sewing machines, as well as overlook, fitting, cutting, button and buttonhole and stiching machines and press irons.

New Horizons: How did this project begin?

SÖ: When GİDEMs started their "Windows of Opportunity" projects, they asked us if we would want to develop a project for Adıyaman, too. I was already familiar with the state of the ready-to-wear textile business in our town; during a previous inventory study we carried out in this sector, companies mostly complained about lack of qualified personnel to employ.

NH: Which year was this?

SÖ: It was in 2003. Well, so we decided to ask for the support of the Textile Industrialists' Association -because they had all the necessary machinery park- and having gained it, we launched on a project of our own, and named it "Adıyaman Textile Training Centre". We created a detailed project, with the help of the Governer, the Mayor and the Deputy-Mayor of Adıyaman, and prepared the budget of the project. As a GIDEM office, we were only able to train the teaching staff and supply necessary training materials; but we could not afford to pay wages to the staff. We consulted the university administrators and agreed with them to hire their graduates, as well as professionals of the sector, following an examination to choose the right trainers for this purpose. The exam was prepared and given by the experts of KOSGEB from Istanbul, of the Ministry of National Education and the EU's Vocational Technical Education Project specialists. The exam had three sections: written, oral and general aptitude. After having passed the exam, the selected trainer candidates, there were 18 of them at the time, attended a special course here for two months, and received their certificates. So we gave our certificates, appointed our trainers, readied our machines and searched for a location to start our classes... The Town Council allocated this building to us and we began our training courses. KOSGEB paid our trainers' wages. The important thing was to connect all these different institutions. We were able to bring together 9 different establishments for this purpose. We trained 370 people, 200 of them are currently employed.

NH: Still, 200 of them are working...

SÖ: Yes, and the rest is not working because they don't want to. For example, at the end of the first training period, only 7 of the graduates acquired jobs in the industry, the rest simply disappeared! I guess, the attitude was "now that I have the certificate, sound and strong, why should I work?" We discussed this situation with the trainers, and decided that the certificates should be given, not by us, but by the factory or company, and only to those who actually work there. And this worked! Gradually the men began to take up jobs; now there are 200 of them, maybe even more.

NH: So, the industry needs workers, but there's little demand for jobs?

SÖ: Exactly, the sector desparately needs more employees! While we were conducting the courses here, I used to recieve letters from factories and workshops, saying they need 40-50 workers.

NH: But why don't they work?

SÖ: This is a social problem. Some consider it disgraceful to work for others. Some fathers offer to pay their sons the amount (say, 200-250 YTL) which they could earn from factory jobs. Some consider it more profitable to work in seasonal jobs, instead of a regular one. They work for several months each year, collect a lump sum and use it for the rest of the year. This shows that industrial culture hasn't been truly adopted in Adıyaman, yet. We are still in the initial stage.

NH: Do some people want to get these certificates for other purposes? For example, to show off a diploma?

SÖ: Certainly! It's a common situation... Some fathers require this certificate from the bridegroom as a condition to marry their daugther off. Some young men come to these courses just to get the diploma, so he can get married. Then he invites his teachers to the wedding! I remember a 40-year-old man coming here and literally crying and begging to be admitted to the training courses, saying that otherwise he had no chance of moving ahead in life. So our certificate is almost valued as a university diploma! Whether they get a job afterwards is not so important. This place is like a school. Not all students graduating from formal textile schools become employed in the textile sector; same is the case here, we have shrinkages, too. Our centre is really like a university, some 1,700 people have applied to be admitted to our courses, and the number increases every day.

NH: How many trainers do you have?

SÖ: Presently, we have 12 of them.

NH: Are similar activities carried out at the other two GİDEM centres?

SÖ: No, ours is the only one which conducts a vocational training project. The GİDEM in Mardin works on wine-making and filigree craftsmanship. There is the development of women's entrepreneurship project and marble-working project in Diyarbakır, and ecological agriculture project in Urfa.

FIRST CLUSTERING IN THE TEXTILE AREA

Another remarkable activity of the GIDEM Office in Adıyaman is "Clustering in the Textile Sector".

Already practiced in many industrial sectors in various parts of Turkey, the clustering process in the textile sector was first developed in Adıyaman in December 2004. We asked Sırrı Özen about the meaning and purpose of "clustering".

Sırrı Özen: In this context, clustering means to form a chain of values in a certain sector in a specific region, by combining all the links in that sector and thus contribute to its development. What supports the textile sector is not only production; financing and technical infrastructure are also very important.

NH: Do public institutions join the clustering, too?

SÖ: Yes, banks and financial institutions, educational institutions and transport companies --in short, all establishments and enterprises, including the media-- which play a role in the sector are involved in the clustering.

NH: Is this activity directly related to ATEM?

SÖ: No. ATEM and 'clustering' are separate projects, but currently they overlap. Clustering covers a very large area and ATEM is the textile education part of it. Training is a vital link for the ready-to-wear sector. If you want to develop this sector you definitely need human resource. You cannot just push the button and make textile production without human labour. That is why ATEM became an essential link in the clustering process. This city needed such an initiative.

NH: So you started the clustering activity at the same time with the opening of ATEM?

SÖ: Yes, we opened ATEM, and on the same day we held a meeting with the representatives from the GAP Development Agency and the UNDP. We discussed the problems of the sector and everybody listed their concerns. The issues were evaluated and classified under different topics, and we developed 32 projects in 10 areas. Every project addresses a different problem. But the project list was flexible; later on we added some new projects and eliminated some others.

NH: What is the specific purpose of this clustering? To develop the sector or to open up to the outside world?..

SÖ: To develop the sector. And that includes every thing else... First comes the overall development of the textile sector. We want to manufacture in all areas of the textile industry in Adıyaman. One of the factors hindering development in the region is insufficient socialization. In fact, one of our projects aims to enhance social exchange and increase cultural activities here. Technical staff who come to town to work soon become unhappy because of the lack of social activity, and they don't stay here for long. There are no cinemas, no theatres... This was one of the issues the local committee focused on. The local committee is only a pressure group, they don't have a magic wand to produce cinemas and theatres. But they can create a social pressure to encoure the opening of such cultural venues. As a matter of fact, as the textile sector grows bigger, we are having more and more visitors from outside. As a result of the demand by the businessmen from Istanbul who do business here, we now have direct flights between Adıyaman and Istanbul.

NH: How many companies joined the organisation?

SÖ: Currently there are 9 companies in the Local Committee. Also there are non-governmental organizations, university and KOSGEB representatives.

NH: Were there any companies which wanted to join but were refused?

SÖ: No. Our door is open to everyone, because this is a voluntary work. We want to have as many companies as we can get. We have an e-mail group among the Local Committee members and we are communicating closely.

NH: So you will probably start a website soon?

SÖ: Yes, that has become a must.

NH: What kind of activities did you carry out within the framework of the clustering?

SÖ: We set up a local committee to discuss our issues and the ways of addressing them. Gaining the cooperation of universities and the industry was important for us. So we decided to invite students from universities' textile departments. During our last two meetings, we brought together textile company managers with students and provided them the opportunity to work in factories as intern personnel. Some 70-80 students came to us. In fact, one of these students said to one of the industrialists, "Before I met you all, I didn't picture this sector, the textile business and its businessmen like I found here. Now, I like my profession more." Those meetings opened up new horizons for students who previously lived in a small, closed world.

NH: Are there any participation from the governor's office, the municipality and the public sector?

SÖ: They don't usually participate in our meetings, but whenever we need their help, they readily offer it.

NH: In what stage are the projects which have been developed by the cluster? Were you able to get any funding?

SÖ: There are 32 projects in all, but not all of them are suitable to attract funding. We will ask for funding for 10 projects. The EU Commission is ready to fund those, because they all aim to improve the sector, create employment, reduce poverty and contribute to development, although there are a few problems we need to overcome.

COMPANIES' POINT OF VIEW ON CLUSTERING:

What do the participating companies think about the clustering activities? Why have they joined in this work? Why do they spare time to contribute to these efforts? We wanted to learn the industrialists' point of view from Rıza Ceyhan, owner of Estetik Dokuma Tekstil:

Rıza Ceyhan: We got involved in the project through GAP-GIDEM office. We were already in touch with KOSGEB and GIDEM before the project started. When we heard that they were going to develop such a project we volunteered to join, because we had a textile business in Ankara for 20 years, before we came here. I've been in Adıyaman for 6 years now. The reason that brought me here was social responsibility, the thought that we should return to our home town. Maybe because I previously worked in the education sector, my sense of social responsibity is strong.

NH: So what do you do? What are your project activities?

RC: When they first told me about the textile project in Adıyaman, I didn't have a too optimistic idea about it. Then when I found out that a similar project had been realized in Sultanahmet, Istanbul in the tourism area and heard about its positive impact, I began to believe it could produce some good results in Adıyaman, too. In Adıyaman textile has a self-developing structure. It's not an organized sector. It has developed by itself, as a field of occupation of people who did not know the business but had economic power. Therefore, a serious organisation was definitely needed in order to bring those people together and help them become more professional and successful. I believed clustering would create such an organization. We have already benefited from it. Human resource shortage in the textile sector is now being dealt with. We've had energy resource problems and some troubles with the industrial zone. Shortage of qualified workers is a major problem. Our employees are mostly women from poor or low income groups; poorly educated or illiterate. We have to overcome this problem. We need to create projects and build continuous training facilities. All companies try to create these conditions more or less, but these are individual efforts. With this project, we can set things according to the rules and in an official way. I am also a committee member in the textile division of the Chamber of Industry and Commerce (CIC). The president of CIC supported us on this matter and with the initiation of GİDEM, the project is finally realized.

NH: Was it difficult in the beginning to cooperate with the other companies in the sector you normally compete with?

RC: My position is a bit different. My firm is the only one which produces under its own brand name and sells to the domestic market in Turkey. We have our own styling workshop, our own cutting, fitting and sewing workshops. I market to 60 cities. For that reason, my company does not have much competition. On the contrary, cooperating in this project created one big advantage; it provided the opportunity for all uf us, all companies, to put an end to "stealing" qualified personnel from one another. We have formed a common sense. We created new ideas together and realized our common interests.

NH: But sometimes you have lecturers and listeners from outside, don't you?

RC: Yes, certainly. Civil society organizations join us, too. We've had some problems with the Turkish Electricity Distribution Company (TEDAŞ). We invited its General Manager to our meeting. We had some problems with the Postal Service (PTT) company, so we invited the Director . That's how problems are solved, because it's a social organization that they have to deal with. We are a social organization and we have a social problem. They wouldn't turn a deaf ear.

NH: To what do you attribute the success of your project?

RC: The only factor behind the success of this project is the sense of ownership of its stakeholders . If you don't have this feeling of 'owning' it or belonging to it, success would not come. There is no other Turkey, and no other Adıyaman, either... So, we have to do something. Almost all our friends and fellow businessmen in this sector carry the same mentality. That's how the project works so smoothly.

ANOTHER WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY: GARLIC PRODUCTION

Adıyaman Textile Training Centre and Clustering are the flagships of Adıyaman GIDEM Office. But they have another 'window of opportunity' in Adıyaman, and that is the Development of Garlic Production Project. We hear the story of garlic from Sırrı Özen, the Coordinator of Adıyaman GIDEM.

Sırrı Özen: Here, in the township of Tut, they produce and consume huge amounts of garlic. So we decided to make better use of this produce. In order to improve and increase the production of garlic, we had to first tackle with the industrial side of the business. So we prepared a project. It's a long, 2-year project. It involves planting, harvesting and product analysis. Having done these, we turned the final corner. Our garlic's quality improvement has been registered.We have determined the right formula of a better quality garlic. We are now waiting for the final analysis. We have also found an investor businessman who will take care of the production. He is a native of Tut, now living in Istanbul.

NH: With whom did you make the improvement tests?

SÖ: With a professor from the Ankara University. We also worked with farmers in a pilot field. We carried out demonstrations. The thing is to find the right formula, the right fertilizer, etc. When the final report arrives, we will hold a meeting with the farmers to discuss the results of the experimental work, what we have done so far, and we'll try to convince the farmers to produce garlic with this new method. We are working in cooperation with the local Government of Tut. The project will be completed this year, we've been working for two years now. Then, we'll organize the farmers.

NH: By "organizing", do you mean encouraging them?

SÖ: Yes. In any case, after convincing a couple of farmers and showing them the product improvement, all farmers will adopt the new method. As I've already said, we found the businessman who will make the investment. He is one of the biggest industrialists of Adıyaman. We also found the production fields. In any case, the investment cost is not so big; what is important is the marketing aspect. And our businessman has good marketing channels. What we have done, as GIDEM, was to improve the product, and increase its quality and competitiveness.

AND SUPPORT TO WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS...

Amongst all their activities, GIDEM Adıyaman Office pays extra attention to support potential women entrepreneurs in the region. Within the framework of the Development of Women's Entrepreneurship Project, GIDEM has organized and conducted seven different training courses for women. The first women's association in the area of entrepreneurship in Adıyaman, Anatolian Women's Association (AKAD) was established under the leadership of GIDEM. Local women who attended GIDEM's courses have become craftswomen now, creating all sorts of handicrafts from dolls and knick-knacks to marble sculptures. Nimet Peri is one of the graduates of the entrepreneurship training classes. Thanks to the finance and management skills she learned in class, the restaurant business she opened in downtown Adıyaman has become more professional and successful. Here is her story in her own words:

Nimet Peri: I was a housewife, living in a government-owned apartment. I had the balcony of my flat covered and turned into a little shop where I sold clothing which I imported from Istanbul. Right from my balcony!. But later I went into a search to find a more disciplined job. That was when I had heard about GIDEM's training cources. I thought they would be very beneficial for me and I started attending regularly. I took many courses: marketing, business management, leadership, motivation, business building, finance... All of these proved very rewarding for me. They showed me my weaknesses and strengths. Before that, I used to do things by trial-and-error. These courses were like a university education for me.

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