The project established three European-Turkish Business Centers (Gaziantep, Kocaeli, Izmir) that provide comprehensive support to local SMEs.

The project was designed to produce self-sustaining and fully independent centres, firmly based on the needs of the local economy. Today, the centres provide advisory and training activities in general business management as well as in more specialised business topics. They also provide assistance in the internationalisation efforts of SMEs, by facilitating their entrance and further development of the European and Mediterranean markets.

The results achieved were:

• Three independent EU-Turkish Business Centres that are operational on a fully sustainable basis at the end of the project (beginning 2006), after which they are fully managed and run by Turkish staff only;
• A strategy and appropriate tools to facilitate the use of the centres and its services by local SMEs, start-ups, women and their participation in the business community in general;
• The centres are fully integrated in a network of existing business centres in the EU member states and the Mediterranean partners;
• A comprehensive evaluation of the performance of the three business centres and a detailed strategy for the establishment of additional centres in other regions with development potential;
• The experiences gained during the project period concerning the business environment for SMEs are interpreted into Policy Level Advice that reaches the appropriate institutions.