TÜRKONFED (Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation) is a non-governmental business organization, aiming to contribute to the development of regional, sectoral and national economic policies. TÜRKONFED is an associate member of The European Association of Craft, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (UEAPME) since 11th of February, 2014. UEAPME is the employers' organization representing the interests of European crafts, trades and SMEs at EU level. UEAPME is a recognized European Social Partner. It is a non-profit seeking and non-partisan organization.TÜRKONFED was established in 2004 as a nation-wide confederation, representing 6 federations and 69 associations. Today, 30 federations and 270 associations fall under TÜRKONFED, through which over 40,000 companies are represented.Member federations are established as regional and sectoral organizations. 26 regional federations of TURKONFED widely cover the country, allowing a national representation. In order to be in accordance with the European Union (EU), the confederation's geographic distribution for these federations is based on "Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics Level 2" (NUTS 2). Regional development, vocational education and employment, competitiveness and innovation are TÜRKONFED's main areas of activity. With the overriding goal of improvements in these fields, TÜRKONFED leads academic and field studies, identifies problems, generates targeted solutions and shares its opinion with stakeholders and policy makers. Furthermore, TÜRKONFED focuses on enhancing the competitiveness of SMEs.Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) played a leading role in TÜRKONFED's establishment. Today, these two organizations conduct many projects in cooperation.