GATE for Women Opening Conference

The Opening Conference of the GATE for Women Operation (Garment Training and Entrepreneurship for Women) was held on Tuesday, 6 September 2016, at the New Jasmin Hotel in Giresun. The operation is implemented with the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency (DOKA) as the Operation Beneficiary and the Ministry of Labour and Social Security – Directorate of EU and Financial Assistance as the Contracting Authority.

Opening speeches were delivered by Mehmet Bozdoğan, Head of the Project Development and Implementation Unit at DOKA and Acting Senior Operation Manager of the GATE for Women Operation; Andrea Vera, Deputy Head of Economic and Social Development at the EU Delegation to Turkey; Kürşad Arat, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security and Head of the Human Resources Development Operational Programme Authority; İrfan Balkanlıoğlu, Governor of Ordu; and Hasan Karahan, Governor of Giresun.

The conference continued with a keynote speech by Fatma Ak, former Internal Resources Manager at LC Waikiki, who shared her experiences and insights on the ready-wear sector with the participants.

Following the lunch break, the GATE Technical Assistance Team made several presentations. The session began with a presentation by Team Leader Anna Vidinova, followed by Thierry Deschietere, Key Expert on Education and Training, and Burçin Yeşiltepe, Key Expert on Communication and Visibility, who introduced the project’s activities and objectives.

The meeting was attended by numerous Public Education Center Directors from Ordu and Giresun provinces, as well as representatives from the ready-wear sector. During the session, Özgür Özay, General Manager of TYH Tekstil, shared insights on the regional textile industry and discussed the challenges faced by the sector along with potential solutions.