About Chamber Of Commerce and Industry In Turkey

In Turkey Chambers of Commerce and industry are important professional representative bodies and membership is compulsory. The chambers play a very important and active role in the day-to-day life of businesses. These organisations have an integral part to play in the structure of commerce and business and their influence on socio-economic life impacts locally, nationally and internationally. The statutory obligation for all individuals with companies to be a member of a chamber relevant to their activity and region makes Turkish Chambers very powerful semi-public entities.

Their roles include:

• Informing and supporting members with legislation and legislative changes
• To help identify and solve issues relating to doing business in and with Turkey’s privae sector.
• Helping to create and maintain a strong local economy
• Promoting the community nationally and internationally
• Providing networking opportunities for local businesses
• To improve business and investment environments domestically and abroad
• Representing businesses in discussions at Government level

Fethiye Chamber of Commerce and Industry

Fethiye Chamber of Commerce and Industry or FCCI (FTSO in Turkish) is a very active chamber; working to promote foreign and domestic socio-economic development within the town, as well as support the Turkish economy as a whole.

Muğla in general and Fethiye in particular is one of Turkey’s most important international and domestic tourism destinations and the town’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry addresses particular attention to this economically significant sector.

Fethiye Chamber of Commerce, originally established in 1901 as Meğri Chamber of Trade, was one of the first five established in the country. During the earliest years of the Chamber, Meğri (later the town’s name was changed to Fethiye,) was a thriving import and export centre with both Greek and Turkish tradesmen members, all of whom were part of the Ottoman Empire at that time.

Sadly, much of the earliest documentation and information about the first years of the chamber has been lost. Much was lost in 1957 due to a massive earthquake that struck Fethiye and even more was lost in a fire the following year.

These two unfortunate events resulted in the loss of a fascinating historical record that would have shed light on the economic and business life of Fethiye in the first half of the 20th century.