On 10 June, a joint meeting was held between Italian AIDDA (Italian Association of Women Entrepreneurs and Managers) and KAGIDER (the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey). The meeting was held on the digital platform on June 10, 2020. FCEM (World Association of Women Entrepreneurs) Chairman Marie Christine Oghly, KAGIDER President Emine Erdem, AIDDA President Maria Claudia Torlasco Mastelli and AIDDA Friuli Venezia Giulia President Lilli Samer attended the event which was held via Zoom platform on June 10, 2020.

Women entrepreneurs from both countries shared their valuable experiences on both the entrepreneurship and the COVID-19 pandemic process.  Participants evaluated opportunities for cooperation and a goodwill protocol was signed between KAGİDER and AIDDA at the meeting. AIDDA participants discussed about what can be done as we move to the new normal after COVID-19 in the tourism and service sectors, which was mostly affected by the process. The women entrepreneurs of both countries, on the other hand, discussed the problems experienced in the transition to the new normal, especially the tourism sector, and solutions.

DFDS Mediterranean Business Unit Corporate Communication Manager Özlem Dalga: "As DFDS  Mediterranean Business Unit, we are happy to bring together the female entrepreneurs in Turkey and Italy, which is one of our most important trading centers in Europe, so that future cooperation between the two stakeholders can be developed. We strongly believe that this meeting, where many women entrepreneurs from different sectors, especially tourism, came together after the Covid-19 process, will help forming new channels of doing business for women entrepreneurs.

KAGIDER President Emine Erdem: “Women entrepreneurs are concentrated in the service sector, however, tourism is also among the sectors where they are active. Women are also mostly owners of small businesses. Therefore, they need support in order to survive in the medium term in the pandemic crisis that we are going through. I believe that we have given an example of good cooperation in this difficult process, in which we have once again grasped the importance of the need for solidarity, to unite the powers of the private sector and the civil society. Our desire is to get back to the normal course of our lives in our country and in the world, to survive this process with minimum loss and to realize the 68th FCEM World Congress, which we plan to host as KAGIDER on November in Istanbul. ”

Meeting point is DFDS Academy

DFDS Academy held the first of the training supported by the world's largest communication group WPP on Wednesday, 3 June with the heading “Digital media, trends and opportunities” offered to KAGIDER member women entrepreneurs.

DFDS Mediterranean Business Unit will continue to organize training seminars for women entrepreneurs with expert guests in different fields, in cooperation with various non-governmental organizations on the DFDS Academy Platform.

Training seminars for women entrepreneurs will continue to shed light on different subjects under the leadership of expert names in many different topics such as foreign trade, finance and technology.

About DFDS: DFDS provides transportation and shipping services in Europe. Its customers rely on flexible shipping and logistics solutions and services of DFDS. More than 8.000 employees of DFDS work on ships and offices located in a network of more than 20 countries. DFDS was founded in 1866 and headquartered in Copenhagen.