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History and Touristic Heritage of Çorum
Çorum is the gate of the Black Sea Region which opens into Central Anatolia. It has a history of five thousand years. The capital city of Hittites, Hattuşas, was located in the county today called Boğazkale. In Alaca county, there is the Neolithic site of Alacahöyük and in Şapinuva in the county of Ortaköy, are the invaluable remains from the Hittite period.
Led by the Çorum Museum, sites such as the Citadel of Çorum, Alacahöyük, Boğazkale, Şapinova, which present the historical treasures of the past, are major centres of tourist attraction in the city.
Besides its historical heritage, Çorum also has places of matchless natural beauty. The plateaus of Kargı, Abdullah, İskilip, Bayat and Osmancık are important recreation areas, while in Çatak National Nature Park there is a skiing resort.
The City and Its Environs in Terms of Cultural and Tourism Activities
Çorum, which has an old culture structure that goes back millennia, has been the cradle of many civilizations. The city, whose history goes back to the Palaeolithic era, has incessantly been settled since 4000 B.C. Çorum is like an open air museum that preserves the remains of many civilizations. The most important site of the city, which continues the native culture and art tradition of Anatolia, is BOĞAZKÖY that had been the capital city of the Hittites. Comprising the culture and tourism focus of Çorum, Boğazköy and the ruins of other Hittite towns and historical buildings are the major factors that maintain a lively tourism. Another important characteristic of the city is its being located as a passage on the route that links tourism centres of Central Anatolia and other places to the Black Sea Region.
The Geography of Çorum
The city of Çorum is situated in the area where the Black Sea Region joins Central Anatolia.
Çorum is surrounded by the cities of Amasya in the east, Çankırı in the west, Yozgat in the south, Kırıkkale in the southwest, Sinop in the north, Samsun in the northeast and Kastamonu in the northwest. The natural boundaries of the city are formed by the western extension of the Canik Mountains in the north and northeast, the Yeşilırmak River Basin in the east, the Bozok Plateau of Yozgat in the south, the Kızılırmak River Basin in the west, the eastern extension of the Ilgaz Mountain Range on the northwest. With its area of 12.820 km2, the city constitutes approximately 1.6% of the total area of the country.
The city is located between north latitudes 39 54 – 41 20 and east longitudes 34 04 -35 28. Its elevation from the sea is 770 metres.
Industry in Çorum
Çorum Cement Factory, which is a public investment that started production in 1957, can be seen as the beginning of industrialization in Çorum in the modern sense. After this investment, for a long time no public investments based on production were made into our city.
The manufacturing facilities belonging to the private enterprise in our city does not have the homogenous structure that can be seen in Denizli or Manisa, that is, it does not focus on the textile or leather industry. Each industry can be said to have developed according to its own trends and peculiar set of conditions, especially with respect to the existence of local resources. We would like to give special emphasis to the local workshops, which are simpler and more labour- intensive in comparison to the manufacturing techniques today in different sectors, and which, due to their better use of local resources and new manufacturing techniques, have led to major developments in the brick, tile and flour industries as well as the machine industry which serves to meet the local demands for machines and equipment in the two aforementioned industries. These areas of production have become the driving force for industrialization of Çorum.
The establishment of the flour mills go back to the 1930s. With the strength these mills acquired from the agricultural potential of the region and with the mechanical sector focusing its production in this area, new factories that operated with modern technology were founded, eventually their product quality has come to be a local brand countrywide as “Çorum flour”.
However, due to the spread of flour mills built with local and individual resources, and the state not taking measures, such as laying a certain capacity, towards limiting new, complex investments resulted in excessive increase in capacity in the flour industry. Because of this excessive capacity, unfortunately many facilities in this sector are operated with either low capacity or sometimes stop their production altogether.
Brick and tile manufacturing comprises the backbone of industry in Çorum. Especially because of its labour- intensive quality and the employment opportunities it offers, this industry is the driving force of the region. The beginnings of this industry go back to the 1950s, and were based wholly on local resources. The quality of the soil and the local climactic conditions have always favoured this sector in the area. The mass housing building started by the Directory of Mass Housing in the mid-1980s caused the industry to grow fast, new investments to be made and the highest use of the existing capacity. However, the decrease in demand resulting from various causes led to excessive supply. Due to the economical difficulties that followed, some factories had to stop production.
The local resources based development of the two areas of production mentioned above led to a third, new industry. In the 1980s, the foregrounding of the local demands for machines and equipment, especially in the flour and brick-tile industries, has effectively resulted in the development of the machine industry in our city. Following the insufficient demand at the local and national level in the recent years, the enterprises in this sector renovated their technologies and started production for the international market. Today these enterprises have reached the state where they export to many countries.
In addition to these areas of production, the fact that when during the years investments were made, Çorum was chosen as the centre of production by especially the entrepreneurs residing in Çorum had a positive influence on entrepreneurs from other cities. Local capital owners who sought to invest in new areas of production chose to remain in Çorum, creating new industries in areas such as paper, packing, medical supply, textile, radiators, viol, and poultry farming for egg production.
The industrialization process which started with the aim of utilizing local resources reached its height through machine production and the development of new sectors. During this process, an increasing number of entrepreneurs used their capitals and experience gained from the production processes of previous years to open their second or third factories.
While the unfortunate economic developments experienced both home and abroad in the recent years had a negative impact on new investments and the development of industry, with the Promotion of Investments and Employment Act no: 4325, also known as the Emergency Law, implemented in 1998, stood for a long time as a barrier and due to certain sectors favoured with this promotion decision, the state caused unfair competition between regions. As a result, this act has led to irretrievable losses to the enterprises in Çorum since 1998. The unfair support that started with the Emergency Law of 1998 was amended in the case of Çorum by expanding the number of cities that were covered by the law in 2005.
Çorum has used the opportunities it was offered rationally and become a SME city in its own scale. At the point that Çorum has today reached in the industrialization process, 319 production facilities registered to our chamber have the means of employing 11320 people.
Çorum Industrial Zone
Industrial Zones have been created in order to structure industrialization in the appropriate areas, control urbanization, prevent environmental problems, benefit from information technology, and place and develop various production industries according to a certain plan. These zones supply the manufacturers with land for facilities at moderate prices, on enclosed areas having registered boundaries, and with the necessary infrastructure services, social facilities and techno parks as required, within a planned and systematic framework.
Çorum Industrial Zone was established with this aim in 1977, by Special Provincial Administration of Çorum, Çorum Municipality, Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and local businessmen. It is situated on a 437- hectare land, 12 km. away from the city. In accordance with the Industrial Zones Act no: 4562, the zone has been registered with no:162 to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, and thus gained the character of a corporate legal person. Our industrial zone is a mixed one and contains industrial facilities operating in various fields such as machinery, food, plastics, forest products, chemical industry, ceramics, foundry, automotive related industry, textile, furniture and metal processing.
In this zone, infrastructure facilities needed by entrepreneurs, such as electricity, water, sewerage and drainage systems are present and all the requirements of investors in terms of infrastructure are met with the services provided. Turkish Electricity Management Ltd. Co (TEİAŞ) built an electricity production facility on the 26000m2 area, which was granted by the city, and this facility has supplied 50MVA energy to the city at the first stage. TEİAŞ can increase the energy supply to 150 MVA when required. The natural gas network has been completed, and natural gas, which had been used partially since June 2003, is now being used by all industrial entrepreneurs who have performed the necessary system conversions. The maintenance and management of the electricity, water and natural gas networks is performed by the Regional Directorate.
In order that the industrial entrepreneurs in Çorum Industrial Zone can carry on production under better conditions, KOSGEB (Association for Development of Small and Medium sized Industrial Entrepreneurs) Central Directorate, TSE (Turkish Standards Institute) Region Directorate and Customs Directorate offer their services in the region. The services of the Region Directorate also include fire extinguishing. Moreover, Turk Telekom opened a switch board centre to meet the communication requirements in the region, and the previously exposed phone lines have been relayed underground in order to secure a lasting communication. Fast, secure, economical and single-priced ADSL Internet access is available to the industrial entrepreneurs in our region. As a result of the discussions at the level of the Governor’s Office and the General Staff of Turkish Army, it is expected that the military airport 60 km. away, situated in Merzifon County of Amasya, will be opened to civil air traffic by the end of 2006.
The latest state of our 437-hectare industrial zone is summarized in the following statistics:
- Number of Industrial facility lots : 150
- Number of already allotted lots : 98
- Number of empty lots : 52
- Number of active facilities : 54
- Number of facilities whose activities are interrupted : 13
- Number of facilities under construction : 9
- Number of facilities at project stage : 22
As no empty lots had remained in the present industrial zone by 2004, credit support was requested from the Ministry of Industry and commerce for 50 hectares of the 177-hectare expansion area, and the request was granted by the Ministry. With the credit support of the Ministry of Industry and Commerce and under the responsibility of the Administration of our region, infrastructure building concerning roads, water, sewerage and drainage was tendered by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, with the participation of the Administration of our region, at the first estimated price of 5,468,810.00 YTL according to 2005 unit prices. The infrastructure of this 50-hectare section is aimed for completion in two years. When the infrastructure of the allotted 50-hectare area is completed, there will be 34 industrial lots having a total area of 630,000 m2.
It is our priority that infrastructure of the remaining 127-hectare expansion area is also included in the investment programme and the whole of our region is prepared for entrepreneurs.
With the implementation of the Support Act no: 5350 in 2005, our city was also included in the areas to be supported and opportunities for investment in our region have arisen. As part of the land allotments under acts no: 5084 and 5350, 6 lots from the present industrial zone and 17 lots in the expansion section yet under development, making a total of 23 lots, were granted to industrial entrepreneurs without charge. The grants to entrepreneurs who request land from our region are carried on by the decision of the Administrative Board.
Under Act no: 5350, our region benefits from 100% income tax exemption, 100% exemption from the employer’s share in social security fees and 50% energy cost reduction.
In 2004, 4,500,000 Kwh natural gas, 30,000 tons of water, 2,000,000 Kwh electricity were monthly provided to the facilities actively producing in the region. Today, facilities actively producing in the region are supplied with 6,500,000 Kwh natural gas, 35,000 tons of water, 2,250,000 Kwh electricity every month. While in 2004, the direct and indirect annual exportation in the region amounted to 50,000,000 $ and importation amounted to 5,000,000, today the direct and indirect annual exportation in the region amounts to 60,000,000 $ and importation amounts to 10,000,000 $. In 2004, the number of people employed in the region were 2,500, presently 5000 people are employed in the facilities that are currently active. When the facilities which are yet at the project stage and those which are going to be built in the lots granted without charge start operating, the total of employment in our region will reach 7500 people.
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