5 Projects Found Successful in the Eastern Marmara Region

5 of the projects that applied for support to ensure local and regional development in the Eastern Marmara Region were found successful. While signatures were signed for support, Eastern Marmara Development Agency Secretary General Mustafa Çöpoğlu said, “We have undertaken many projects to reverse rural-to-urban migration and revive our unprocessed, forgotten fields and geographically indicated products.”

Activities have been carried out by the Eastern Marmara Development Agency with various support mechanisms since 2010 to ensure local and regional development in the Eastern Marmara Region, which includes the provinces of Kocaeli, Sakarya, Düzce, Bolu and Yalova. The agency supports projects with the Technical Support Program, which aims to improve the service quality of institutions. Within the scope of the Technical Support Program, the 15th of which was carried out this year, a total of nearly 14 million TL has been allocated since 2010. With this resource, 887 projects have been supported so far, and consultancy and training services have been provided on many different themes. A resource of 10 million TL was allocated for the activities to be supported within the scope of the program for 2024. 7 project applications were received from the region within the scope of the 2024 Technical Support Program for the March-April period. A total of 5 projects, which requested training and consultancy services to improve the human resources, institutional capacity, production and service quality of the region and the quality of life of disadvantaged groups, were deemed successful as a result of the technical and final evaluation following the preliminary examinations and were entitled to receive support. A signing ceremony was held in Kocaeli today for the projects that are eligible to receive support.

“We have undertaken many projects that revive our forgotten fields and geographically indicated products.”

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Eastern Marmara Development Agency (MARKA) Secretary General Mustafa Çöpoğlu said, “We have many ongoing projects. Eastern Marmara Development Agency is a region with high potential. We have many universities, technoparks, OIZs, ports and free zones here. We too As an agency, we are trying to do justice to this potential as much as we can with local governments, universities, technoparks and industrialists in our region. This is already reflected in the figures. 139 of the 500 largest industrial enterprises declared by ISO every year produce in our region. Our region is ranked second after Istanbul in tax accrual. We are over 90 percent in collection. Therefore, this region is the base of production and innovation, and we are working on twin transformations to further strengthen the industry here and make it more competitive in international markets. We provide great support in line with our budget. Green transformation and digital transformation are our priorities. We have carried out important work on strengthening qualified employment in the last 6 years. We have undertaken many projects aimed at providing and training the qualified workforce needed by the industrialists in our region, such as İMES (Advanced Engineering Center of Excellence) in Kocaeli, our training center in Yalova, Sakarya, Düzce and Bolu. After the pandemic, many of our projects aimed at strengthening rural development, strengthening women’s producer cooperatives, and food supply were completed during the SOGEP (Social Development Support Program) process. “We have undertaken many projects to reverse the migration from rural to urban areas and to revive our uncultivated, forgotten fields and our geographically indicated products there,” he said.

5 projects were signed

Within the framework of the Technical Support Program between March and April, Digital Competency Development Project in Technopark (GOSB Teknopark A.Ş), Bolu Province Elderly Profile and Training Needs Research Project (Abant İzzet Baysal University Faculty of Health Sciences), Master Plan Preparation Project for Lean Change Studies in Health Institutions. Signatures were signed for 5 projects named (Bolu Provincial Health Director), Energy Management System Training (Gebze Municipality), Determination of Sakarya’s Offshore Technologies Potential Project (Entrepreneur Businessmen Foundation Sakarya Branch). – KOCAELİ