Turkey hosts first meeting with G-20 representatives, business leaders

ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

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Turkey hosted meetings with representatives of G-20 countries and the inaugural meeting of the B-20, the business branch of the G-20, on Dec. 15, the first such set of meetings since it became president of the G-20 at the start of the month.

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said Turkey aims to bring a “new impetus” to the G-20 and B-20 by developing “an inclusive approach” for all countries, companies and genders to contribute to the global economic recovery, speaking at the Dec. 15 meetings.

“In 2015, Turkey will support dialogue between the business world and global policymakers by means of the G-20 and the B-20,” Babacan said.

Turkey’s presidency of the G-20 group of major economies has opened with a commitment to “fight global inequality.” The 2015 G-20 Summit in November is set to be held in the Mediterranean province of Antalya.      

Stating that the success of Turkey’s presidency depends on the contribution and collaboration of all G-20 countries, Babacan said “inclusivity, implementation and investment” are the main goals of Turkey’s G-20 leadership role.

“I mean inclusiveness with both domestic and global dimensions,” he said, adding that domestically they will support small and medium-sized enterprises, commitments on strengthening gender equality in employment, and addressing youth employment.

“Both in developed and developing countries small and medium-sized enterprises have a crucial role for boosting employment, competitiveness and growth” said Babacan.

“SMEs therefore need to be supported and we’ll create facilitating policies during our G-20 presidency,” he added.

“Turkey will also focus on decreasing the gap between the male and female employment rates and will try to increase women’s employment,” he added.

Meanwhile, B-20 Turkey Chair and the head of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, invited Turkish businesspeople to create a business leaders forum in order to voice their interests globally.

“There have been very few Turkish companies actively working at the B-20 meetings over the last five years. Turkish businesspeople must change this to become stronger in the world markets. In this vein, we are creating a business leaders’ forum that will be composed of 100 C-levels of leading Turkish companies. I invite you to take part in the forum,” Hisarcıklıoğlu said in his opening speech at the B-20 meeting.