WEF Istanbul event needs sustainability

ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News

The World Economic Forum’s Istanbul event is very significant, says Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ. DHA photo

It is a very significant development that a World Economic Forum event is being held in Istanbul, Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ, chairwoman of Doğan TV Holding, an official broadcaster of the event, told Hurriyet.com.tr yesterday.

“Now we will talk about what to do after [the event] to make this summit sustainable,” she told Hürruyet said at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia 2012.

“This year new ground is broken here [in Istanbul]. This is a summit that covers Europe, Africa and Asia,” she said.

The opening session of the event, which featured Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali and Klaus Schwab, the founder of the World Economic Forum, presented the summit’s very important messages to the whole world, she said.

“This forum includes [discussion] on many dynamics such as the balance between developed and developing countries, worries that the European crisis has intensified, Turkey’s position [in the world in terms of economy and diplomacy],” she said.

Yalçındağ said she will be speaking at a session today with Deputy PM Ali Babacan.

Female employment
The recent increase in female employment in Turkey is encouraging but there is still a long way to go, Sabancı Holding Chairwoman Güler Sabancı said at a session during the summit.

“This forum has an important report on gender inequality. Turkey’s performance in this is not very good,” she said. Turkey created 3.7 million jobs, 1.5 million of which went to females, she said.

A future based on cooperation should be created, Muhtar Kent, the Coca-Cola Company chairman and chief executive told journalist on the sidelines of the event.

“We face basic problems such as a global financial crisis, energy, water, foreign investments, trade, economic integration and sustainability,” he said, adding that sustainable growth should be a focus point as well as social cohesion and governance.