G-20 summit to seek solutions to multi-dimensional world challenges

Turkey will host the G-20 summit in Antalya on November 15-16, 2015. The heads of states and governments of the member states, as well as leaders of international organisations are expected to participate in the summit.

In addition to the G-20 member states, Azerbaijan, Spain, Malaysia, Senegal, Singapore and Zimbabwe are scheduled to take part as well.

Since December 1, 2014, when Turkey took over the G-20 presidency, more than 70 ministerial meetings, including those on trade, energy, agriculture, empowerment of women and youth, and many other activities have been organised.

Moreover, the World SME Forum was officially launched as a result of efforts at devising ways and means of supporting SMEs and integrating them in the global economy.

Turkey has identified three major themes for the Antalya summit: inclusiveness, investments and implementation.

In this connection, strengthening the global economy and increasing its inclusiveness, deepening coordination, dialogue and cooperation between G-20 member states and low-income developing countries, sustainable growth, enhancement of investments, and implementation and follow-up of the G-20 conclusions will be taken up during the summit.

The Turkish presidency prioritised bolstering the resilience of the global financial system and helping global economy grow in a robust, balanced and sustainable manner.

We are of the opinion that the employment generation capacity of economic growth and equitable sharing of the generated wealth are of primary importance.

In this connection, inclusiveness is of the essence; an economic structure that embraces all segments of the society and minimises inequalities is called for in order to achieve sustainable development.

Allocating a greater share of prosperity and economic development to disadvantaged segments of the society, including women and youth, is needed not only for reinforcing social cohesion, but also for maintaining economic growth on a sound and sustainable basis.

We attach special importance to supporting the low-income developing countries.

Among other priorities of the Turkish presidency are ensuring food security and minimising food losses and waste, as well as tackling climate change in its correlation with development.

In view of the fact that global issues are inter-connected and thus there is need to tackle economic and political matters in a holistic approach, we thought that it would be useful for the G-20 leaders to take up pressing issues like combating terrorism and dealing with the refugee crisis as well, instead of focusing exclusively on economic matters.

We believe that the Antalya summit of the G-20, which stands for 85 per cent of the global economy, will constructively contribute to the international efforts aimed at developing action-oriented solutions to the multi-dimensional challenges that the world faces today. 

The writer is Turkey’s ambassador to Jordan. He contributed this article to The Jordan Times.