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UNITEE EME REPORT 2011-2012 ENTREPRENEURS MEET EMBASSIES

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Strengthening Europe’s economy through Cross-Border Trade

EME Portugal & Italy 10 October

UNITEE has organised a series of conferences and high-level

networking events aimed at stimulat-ing business and trade opportunities in Europe. Chief among these has been a series of conferences entitled Entre-preneurs meet Embassies featuring diplomatic, political and business rep-resentatives from a range of European countries.The purpose of these confer-ences is to inform our members,

entrepreneurs and professionals, of business and investment opportunities in other countries around Europe. Those events serve as forums for diplomats, chambers of commerce and entrepre-neurs to exchange ideas on how the investment potential of their respective countries can be maximised through constructive dialogue and cross-border collaboration between governments and innovators.

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Our UNITEE EME Events

Our first event focused on Portugal and Italy and fea-tured trade representatives, diplomats and politicians from those countries

The first of our events to take place at the European Parliament, this conference was hosted by Estonian MEP Kristiina Ojuland

Our second event in December was attended by en-trepreneurs from Belgium and the Netherlands eager to learn about business opportunities in Romania and Bulgaria

Our most recent event focused on investment op-portunities in Poland and was hosted by the Polish embassy in Belgium

EME Portugal & Italy 10/10/11

EME Baltic States 31/01/12

EME Romania & Bulgaria 05/12/11

EME Poland 18/04/12

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ENTREPRENEURS MEET EMBASSIES: Portugal & Italy

Mr. Adem KUMCU

10 October 2011

On 10 October, European-Turkish entrepreneurs from around Belgium met with diplomatic representa-tives from Portugal and Italy with the aim of discovering new and innovative ways to promote cross-border trade in Europe. The event was organised by the European-Turkish Business Confederation (UNITEE)

and Betiad - the Federation of Active Entrepreneurs, and was the first of a number of such meetings involving embassies and business persons from around Europe.

This conference included speakers such as:

• Mr. Jan Van Fraechen, president of the Belgium-Portuguese Chamber • Mr. Federico Eichberg, vice-president of Invitália • Ms. Claire Tillekaerts, General Director of Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) Also present was a number of leading figures from the Belgian business community including: • Mr. Philipe Suinen, chief executive officer of the Wallonia Foreign Trade and Investment Agency (AWEX) • Mr. Jacques Evrard, managing director of Brussels Investment & Export and • Mr. Jan Sap, managing director of UNIZO

The event was accompanied by a selection of Portuguese and Italian music and an art exhibition by Miro da Silva. Dr Adem Kumcu, president of UNITEE said: it is my sincere hope that this event will mark the beginning of constructive dialogue between entrepreneurs, innovators, diplomats and decision makers in turn contribut-ing to Europe’s economic recovery.

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Dr Adem Kumcu opens art exhibition by Miro da Silva

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From the left: Pavel Strahilov, Mugur Popovici, Chantal De Bleu, Savas Matin and Atalay Tamer

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ENTREPRENEURS MEET EMBASSIES: Romania & Bulgaria5 December 2011

The second event in this series took place in December 2011. This conferencewas organised by the UNITEE in association with the Federation of Active Entrepreneurs in Belgium (Betiad) and

the Federation of Young Dutch Entrepreneurs (HOGIAF).

Speakers at the event included: • Mr Mugur Popovici, minister-counsellor (commercial and economic) at the Embassy of Romania • Mr Atalay Tamer, president of the Romanian-Turkish Chamber of Commerce and Industry• Mr Pavel Strahilov third secretary, commercial affairs, Bulgarian embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg• Ms Chantal De Bleu, deputy general manager, Wallonia Foreign Trade and Investment Agency• Ms Rovana Plumb MEP, a member of the delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee

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ENTREPRENEURS MEET EMBASSIES: The Baltic States

31 January 2012

On Tuesday 31 January, European-Turkish entrepreneurs from Belgium and the Netherlands met with diplomatic and business representatives from the Baltic States – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. This event was the third of the series and was the first one that took place in the European Parliament. The

host was Ms Kristiina Ojuland, a Member of the European Parliament for Estonia.

The participants were addressed by a number of high-profile speakers including:

• Ms. Lelde Līce – Līcīte, Latvian Ambassador to Belgium, • Ms. Tuuli Parnsalu, Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the Estonian Embassy in Belgium • Mr. Tomas Vasilevskis, Head of the Lithuanian Business representation in Belgium • Ms. Sandra Kalniete, a Member of the European Parliament for Latvia

The Secretary-General of UNITEE, Mr Savas Metin said: the ‘‘New European business community in Belgium and in Europe at large is young, flexible and eager to embrace education and new skills. Considering the changing nature of demographics in Europe, New-European entrepreneurs will play a key role in ensuring our future prosperity’’.

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ENTREPRENEURS MEET EMBASSIES: Poland

18 April 2012

UNITEE in collaboration with the Embassy of Poland organised the fourth event of our series entitled Entrepreneurs meet Embassies on Wednesday 18th April. The event took place at the Embassy of Republic of Poland in Brussels and was hosted by HE Ambassador Artur Harazim. The debate was

chaired by Mr Bartłomiej Lewandowski, First Secretary of the Trade and Investment Promotion Section.

Participants heard from very important and influential speakers such as:

• Mr Marek Korowajczyk, Deputy Director of Department of Promotion and Bilateral Cooperation at the Ministry of Economy• Mr Jean-Marie De Baerdemaeker, Managing Director at BEPOLUX• Professor Krzysztof Rybiński, Rector of the Vistula University• Mr Mehmet Orhun Eskici, Executive Board Member at Akfel Group

In his welcome speech, Ambassador Harazim emphasised the importance of the close cooperation between Poland and Turkey in the economic and political realms. Dr Adem Kumcu promised that playing the role of intermediary, UNITEE will aid and advise entrepreneurs, in finding new business opportunities and engaging with the key players in the Polish market.

Adem Kumcu with the Polish ambassador Mr Artur Harazim

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IN THE FUTURE: More Entrepreneurs Meet Embassies and Trade Missions

TO BE CONTINUED…

In the future UNITEE will con-tinue its effort to promote cross-

border trade by delivering top quality programmes in collaboration with Eu-ropean countries and their Embassies. And we will not stop there! In order to deepen business relations and expand knowledge of international trade and in-vestment opportunities in Europe’s un-familiar markets, UNITEE will organise trade missions to those countries. Dur-ing these visits missions ambitious en-trepreneurs and business professionals will have a chance to

experience the country first hand. They will witness with their own eyes the busi-ness environment, they will meet their counterparts in their respective sectors, decision-makers and other stakeholders and they will have an opportunity to net-work and build business relations. As dr Adem Kumcu, the President of UNITEE, said: ‘‘At UNITEE, we will continue to take concrete steps to develop business relations between our entrepreneurs and those (…) all over Europe’’.

Ambassador Lelde Lice-Licite visits UNITEE’s offices in Brussels to discuss a trade mission to Latvia

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Austria Belgium Czech RepublicDenmark Estonia Finland France

Germany Ireland Italy Latvia LithuaniaLuxembourg Norway

Poland Portugal Slovenia Spain SwedenSwitzerland The Netherlands UK

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