The three-stage workshop series carried out in cooperation with GIZ, TEPAV and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality completed with the last face-to-face workshop held on October 26, 2022 in Gaziantep.

Within the scope of the PEP - Promotion of Economic Prospects Programme financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the last of the three-stage workshop series with the title “Gaziantep Brings its Projects to Life” carried out face-to-face on October 26, 2022, in Gaziantep Chamber of Industry in collaboration with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, TEPAV, and Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality.

Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül, Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin, Gaziantep Chamber of Industry Chairman Adnan Ünverdi, Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce Chairman Tuncay Yıldırım, Gaziantep Commodity Exchange Chairman Mehmet Akıncı, Hasan Kalyoncu University Rector Türkay Dereli, GIZ-PEP Entrepreneurship and Business Development Component Leader Onur Azcan, TEPAV officials and representatives of many institutions, organizations and NGOs participated in the workshop, where project ideas and roadmaps related to agriculture and food industry, manufacturing and social life were evaluated.

Within the scope of the "Facilitating Public-Private Dialogue Mechanisms Project", the current problems of Gaziantep were identified in the first workshop held on 09-10 November 2021 in a participatory and inclusive manner. In the second workshop, 8 project ideas developed by TEPAV with the experts of the field under the titles of Agriculture and Food Industry, Manufacturing and Social Life were presented to the participants. The presentations were made interactively in an environment where the participants were able to express their views on the project ideas in writing and/or verbally, and 3 prioritized project ideas that would shape the future of Gaziantep were determined by voting. In the implementation design workshop, which is the last of the three-stage workshop series, concrete roadmaps and work plans for the implementation of the 3 shortlisted project ideas were presented and discussed with a large and inclusive group of participants.

The first and joint session of the workshop started with the opening speeches. In his opening speech, Onur Azcan, GIZ-PEP Entrepreneurship and Business Development Component Leader, stated that they, as an institution, supported Adana, Gaziantep and Istanbul at the provincial level for the first time in order to develop public-private sector cooperation within the scope of this project. Azcan also stated that they see the third workshop of the Gaziantep component not as an end, but as a strong start for the realization of the determined projects. Mehmet Akıncı, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Gaziantep Commodity Exchange, who took the floor afterwards, stated that Gaziantep stands out as an important actor in the preparation and shipment of agricultural products to national and international markets in accordance with the requested standards. Akıncı pointed out that as a result of this project carried out in cooperation with TEPAV, Gaziantep will begin to transform into one of Turkey's leading cities in the fields of agriculture, manufacturing and social life. Gaziantep Chamber of Commerce Chairman Mehmet Tuncay Yıldırım, on the other hand, stated that the concrete road maps that will contribute to the development of Gaziantep are an important step that will carry the city to the future, and concluded his speech by thanking everyone who contributed to the realization of the project. Adnan Ünverdi, Chairman of the Board of Gaziantep Chamber of Industry, underlined that in order to exist in the world of the future, it is necessary to work on sustainable projects with nature and people at the center, and stated that the outputs of these studies carried out in order to develop the manufacturing industry and strengthen the public-private sector cooperation will make great contribution to industry and production.

During the workshop, which continued with the opening speech of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Fatma Şahin, Şahin stated that they saw the last workshop held as a new beginning for the development of Gaziantep. Şahin also emphasized that all chambers under the roof of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey are doing important work for the city. Drawing attention to the achievements of the Gaziantep model carried out in cooperation with the public-private sector and its reflections in the city, Şahin underlined that Gaziantep strengthens its human capital with its strong human resources as well as its cultural and historical heritage. Şahin expressed her hope that Gaziantep will become a leading model for Turkey in the new world order with the implementation of the concrete road maps prepared by TEPAV, and that the whole dialogue process will reinforce the cooperation and coordination between the public-private sector and civil society. Gaziantep Governor Davut Gül, who took the floor after Şahin, concluded his speech by stating that these efforts will take Gaziantep one step further in the changing world order.

After the opening speeches, the workshop was followed by the informative presentation of Güven Sak from TEPAV, titled “How did we come to this day? What are we going to do today?”. In his presentation, Sak presented the outputs of the first and second workshops and the preparatory work for the third workshop. After the informative presentation, the participants were directed to sub-sessions to discuss the project ideas and concrete roadmaps for Joining Forces in Olive Oil Quality Production/Innovative Marketing in Gaziantep under the Agriculture and Food Industry title; Center of Green Transformation Gaziantep Organized Industrial Zone (OIZ) under the Manufacturing title; Gaziantep Adding Value to Women's Labor under the Social Life title.

Discussions were held in three simultaneous sub-sessions, moderated by a team from TEPAV, Sibel Güven, Yakup Peker and Asmin Kavas Bilgiç, with an interactive method. In the sub-sessions, the moderators shared the concrete roadmaps of the project ideas and the presentations including the development of the plans with the participants. In these sessions, the views and ideas of the participants on the processes and building blocks of the roadmaps were received.

After the sub-sessions, the participants came together again in the main session. This session of the workshop started with the presentation about the project idea Şener Kara, who is from Gaziantep Commodity Exchange, project idea titled Supporting Employment with Green Transformation of Agri-Food Industry from. Then, it continued with the summary presentation of the road maps made by Sibel Güven from TEPAV and discussed in detail in the sub-sessions. The workshop ended with Güven's evaluation and closing speech.

“Facilitating Public-Private Dialogue Mechanisms”

Within the scope of the PEP – Promotion of Economic Prospects Program financed by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), carried out in partnership with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and TEPAV, the project envisions to establish a public-private consultation, coordination and decision-making mechanism in an inclusive, multi-stakeholder and multi-sectoral manner for during and after the COVID-19 pandemic period in Adana, Gaziantep, and Istanbul to be led by their Metropolitan Municipalities. This mechanism will contribute to the development of a common vision for public and private sector actors, meeting the needs and expectations of stakeholders, increasing employment, improving the business ecosystem, improving the environment for domestic and foreign investments, and ameliorating job opportunities for Syrians and host communities under temporary protection. As such, the aim is to benefit from the potential of the region.