THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP FLAG IS FLOWN UP THE POLE AT IZMIR UNIVERSITY OF ECONOMICS
Izmir University of Economics (IUE) has flown the “Entrepreneurship Flag”, which it qualified to have in the “Bu Gençlikte İş Var” titled competition organized by Turkish Industry and Business Association (TUSIAD) for the most number of enterprising projects, up the pole. Ekrem Demirtaş, IUE President of the Board of Trustees, Prof. Dr. Tunçdan Baltacıoğlu, IUE Rector, Metin Akman, TUSIAD Member and “Bu İşte Gençlik Var” Project Coordinator, Geza Dologh, Chairman of the Executive Committee of Chamber of Shipping Izmir Branch, and Akın Kazançoğlu, Metin Akdurak, Mizyal Akımsar, members of IUE Board of Trustees, presented the awards to 70 students of IUE who qualified to have the “Entrepreneurship Flag” with their 104 projects.
The ceremony began with the speech of Ekrem Demirtaş, IUE President of the Board of Trustees, following the school march. President Demirtaş stated that youth had potential, and it was their duty to provide them with all kinds of opportunities. “We set up techno park. We will be breaking ground in 15 days, or the beginning of 2014 the latest. We will be finishing the building shortly. We are already preparing a place for these young people,” said Demirtaş.
President Demirtaş also stated that they would be transferring funds to Bilimpark, and even though TUBITAK and Ministry of Industry, Science, and Technology offered several funds to support entrepreneurship, if they ran short of funds, they would put risk capital into action. By stating that capital played a major role in putting a project into action, President Demirtaş said the following:
“The whole world is in a competition. Turkey, at one stage, expanded 8-9%. It has more self-confidence now. Actually, it is putting on the brakes. They are mentioning about a 3 percent growth currently. This means a non-growth for Turkey. Growth can happen through scientific projects and added values caused by them. The future lies in putting knowledge into action. Therefore, we see it as our responsibility to provide all kinds of support.”
‘Our entrepreneurship success is reinforced’
IUE Rector Prof. Dr. Tunçdan Baltacıoğlu indicated that different units were established in order to support the entrepreneurship studies by students and academicians. Prof. Dr. Baltacıoğlu said, “We established incubation centre Embriyonix for our students to help them with launching their businesses, finding support and investment for them. More than 25 students in this centre worked at the businesses within the University, made sales, made invoices, and expanded their businesses. More than 500 student projects were assessed; more than 50 projects were funded.”
Prof. Dr. Baltacıoğlu pointed that the success of the University was reinforced with the ‘Entrepreneurship Flag’ in the “Bu Gençlikte İş Var” titled competition organized by TUSIAD.
‘Entrepreneurship calls for tolerance’
Metin Akman, TUSIAD Member and “Bu İşte Gençlik Var” Project Coordinator, also stated that the association started to support the youth 3 years ago, and since then one thousand 500 students applied with their business ideas. Akman mentioned that the youth was the owners of ‘Bu Gençlikte İş Var’ project competition, and he said, “You cannot become an entrepreneur without having tolerance. You do not become rich by earning money. You become rich by saving money. We cannot succeed at global competition without becoming innovative. Start out at a local level, innovative ideas are developed through support.”
