Organization of Ethnic Enterprises

Dortmund, Germany - Dortmund, located in the North Rhine-Westphalia district of Germany, has a population of 587,800 and is the seventh largest city in the country. It ranks 34th among the large cities of Europe and according to the 2005 census residents include 134,000 (22.9%) immigrants.There are approximately 27,000 Turkish people living in Dortmund.
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Caner Aver, Spokesman of DOGIAD.
 
A total of 7.2 % of business enterprises in the city are owned by foreigners, of which 23% are owned by Turks. The food, retail and service centers are the calling cards for 30% of Turkish business owners in Dortmund.  

The abundance of enterprises with ethnic origin brought about a need for solidarity in the business world. The Dortmund Businessmen Organization (DOGIAD), established in 1996, serves the goal of strengthening ties in the business world, as well as the development of communication and qualifications of workers.

ETHNIC ECONOMICAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECT
The initial founding of the organization was in 1996; however, since 2007 it has become
an active and professional enterprise. The “Ethnic Economical Development Project” in Dortmund, sponsored by the Turkish Research Center (TAM), based in Essen, has served to put a new face on the activities of DOGIAD. Yunus Ulusoy, the project head of TAM, and Caner Aver, the project manager, have facilitated the endeavors of ethnic  entrepreneurs by bringing them together with DOGIAD to evaluate studies carried out in Dortmund within the context of the project financed by funds from the European Union.  
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DOGIAD board members are together.

Upon DOGİAD’s agreement to go along with the project conducted by TAM, the two organizations converged in November 2007. Since DOGİAD has not completed its structuring as yet, it is not accepting members at the moment. However, its goal is to enroll 100 members by the end of 2009. Presently, studies on the organization’s laws, marketing, operations and activities are underway.

DIVERSE ETHNIC ORIGINS
The organization, which will become  public following these efforts, will be the fruit of a long-term project. The administrative board of DOGİAD is composed of ten people. Two members are female and four are from countries other than Turkey. In fact, they are people of diverse ethnic origins from Ukraine, Greece and Korea.who live in Dortmund.

The head of the organization is Ersoy Sam, who works as a lawyer in Dortmund. Caner Aver, the official spokesman of the organization and one of the people endeavoring to transform DOGİAD into a professional and effective organization, emphasizes that their aim is not merely to bring Turkish business enterprises together, but also to work in unison with people of other ethnic origins in Dortmund, where 134,000 such people live. 

According to the organizational charter, aside from entrepreneurs who live in Dortmund, people working in the municipality and banks, tradesmen or, in short, all legal persons who pay a monthly fee of 20 Euro to the organization will be accepted as members.  

Aver also emphasizes the fact that one of the projects to be implemented is the opening of professional training centers in foreign enterprises to contribute to training of personnel. He states: “This way we shall be able to integrate forign enterprises into the German economy.” Aver, who is the son of an immigrant family from Adana, is a graduate of the department of geography and  a person who, by virtue of the project he has been working on, has been able to establish warm relations with many entrepreneurs in Dortmund and its vicinity in the course of about three years. Zafer Aktaş, a member of DOGİAD, says that the organization has gained new aspects through Aver’s endeavors.  Aver voices the feeling that they will be a bridge between the German society and the people of other ethnic origins. He emphasizes that they will particularly try to assist  foreign trade for businesses which want to work with Turkey and Russia.  

DORTMUND IN NUMBERS
- Among the business enterprises in Dortmund 7.2% are of foreign origin. 23% are Turkish (the largest ethnic group) and 32% are Italian, Greek, Spanish and  Portugese. 14% are from new EU countries and 31% are from countries of the former Soviet Union.
- 30% of Turkish enterprises are in food, retail and service sectors.
- 71% of Turkish businesses have full-time employees; that is, they are no longer single-person enterprises.
- Nearly 33% employ German workers as well.
- 22.9% of the population is of foreign origin (according to 2005 census, 134,000 foreigners; total population: 585,000)
- Nearly 27,000 carry Turkish passport. (People of foreign origins who are German citizens are not included in the statistics)
- In Dortmund the sectors that stand out are IT, logistics, microsystem technology.
- In these three fields there are 1400 businesses employing 37,000 people.
- 680 IT businesses employed 12,000 people (the largest IT center is  in KRV district)
- In Europe 10% of people working in medical technology live in Dortmund.
- The largest businesses are: Materna (software), Elmos (high tech, nanotechnology), Wilo (worldwide  pump maker), Thyssen Krupp (iron-steel).
- Dortmund harbor is the largest canal harbor in Europe.
Last modified onSaturday, 06 May 2017 10:07