Global business leaders ask for ‘fertile ground’ for further investments

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

DHA photo

Global business leaders and ministers have started to discuss economic risks and their expectations from the Group of 20 countries at the B-20 conference in the capital city of Ankara on Sept. 3. They have called for the creation of common investment principles in a report, which includes a total of 19 demands, to be presented to G-20 leaders in November.  

The B-20, set up in 2010 to give policy recommendations on behalf of the international business community to the G-20, has voiced their need for more transparent investment and trade conditions across the world. 

The B-20 Summit, with the attendance of over 1,000 businesspeople from 60 countries has been held on the sidelines of the meetings of G-20 finance and treasury ministers and central bankers in the city this week. 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on G-20 countries to turn the global financial crises into opportunities in his speech at the opening ceremony of the B-20 conference. 

Erdoğan asked G-20 member states to prepare investment strategies to secure robust, balanced and sustainable global growth, ahead of a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers in Ankara. He said investing in infrastructure was the key to securing such growth.

“The G-20 countries can turn crisis into an opportunity,” he said.

The increasing inequality since the financial crisis must be addressed, particularly regarding women and young people, he said.

In his speech, Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yılmaz said the largest problem of the world economy was a deep credibility deficit. 

“The faster we can close this gap, the faster credibility will increase. This will enable the world to achieve a stronger growth,” he said. 

Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, the head of B-20 Turkey and the president of Turkey’s Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB), meanwhile, said the global economy was transitioning into a new monetary policy. 

“Even the strongest currencies could lose 10 percent in value today…We have seen many fluctuations in the global economy, and we need a global coordination mechanism to resolve the problems,” he said. 

Hisarcıklıoğlu’s TOBB will be the host of meetings, gathering some 1,000 businesspeople and representatives of the finance world from 60 countries. 

G-20 ministers and central bankers will exchange views on recent global economic developments, challenges and collective measures to address them as well Sept. 4-5, according to Yılmaz. 

Following the discussions of the G-20 ministers and central bank governors, a communiqué of the Ankara Meeting will be issued and shared with the international community, he added.

Turkey’s G-20 presidency will end this year with a high-level global meeting in Antalya, the Turkish coastal province by the Mediterranean Sea.