CHP’s İstanbul candidate pledges to create 200,000 jobs

ISTANBUL

Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate for İstanbul province Ekrem İmamoğlu pledged to offer at least 200,000 jobs in five years of time in the biggest metropolis of Turkey.

“We will determine the current state of the workforce through surveys with TÜİK, İŞKUR, office of statistics that we will open, SGK, trade and industry chambers and unions. We will find some 200,000 jobs in five years,” İmamoğlu said on Feb. 28 speaking in a meeting called “solutions for İstanbul”.

“As a municipality, we will open five medical centers for occupational health and centers for occupational diseases in organized industrial zones in Istanbul,” he stated.

İmamoğlu promised to provide 25,000 direct employment and open regional employment offices. He pledged to bring employers and employees together at these offices.

“We will support entrepreneurs,” he said adding that they will set promotion and investment agency for Istanbul. 

He criticized poverty in Istanbul and said this picture cannot be a display of “social justice.”

“We have to produce permanent solutions for the poor. I will explain this in a more detailed way at a meeting in the days ahead,” İmamoğlu said.

They will triple the social aid budget of the İstanbul municipality, the CHP candidate said.

Turkey will go for local elections on March 31 and the strongest rival of CHP’s İmamoğlu will be ruling Justice and Development Party's candidate for Istanbul, Binali Yıldırım.

As the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) formed People’s Alliance with the AKP, it will back Yıldırım, while CHP’s ally İyi (Good) Party will support İmamoğlu.