INTRODUCTION & WELCOME
MESSAGE FROM THE
PRIME MINSTER OF TURKEY
Ahmet Davutoğlu, Prime Minister, Republic of Turkey
The Great Recession in 2008-09 taught us that the solution to
global challenges rests in global actions. The rise of the G20 is a
manifestation of this spirit. As the major economies of the world,
we adopted a more integrated, coordinated and effective approach
to the challenges we have been facing. During these difficult times,
the G20 has clearly demonstrated its capability as a global crisis
resolution forum.
We managed to contain the immediate effects of the Great
Recession, but as stated in Brisbane by the Leaders of the G20,
the growth is still slow, uneven and not delivering the jobs needed.
Meanwhile, the potential of our economies has fallen and the
inequalities kept rising all over the world. There still exist critical
challenges to be addressed by the G20. This means that, the G20 is
still highly important and relevant in a post-crisis world.
The G20 is the premier platform for global economic and financial
issues. Therefore, any subject matter that has implications on the
global economy and international financial system should have its
reflection onto the G20 agenda. With that understanding, while taking
forward the ongoing agenda, we will focus on ways to make the
G20 more relevant to the rest of the world, including the low-income
developing countries (LIDCs).
Collective Action for Inclusive and Robust Growth
The G20 has been instrumental to contain the adverse effects of the
Great Recession so far. Going forward, the membership has devised
comprehensive policy frameworks in a variety of areas and put
forward substantial commitments to achieve our common objective
of strong, sustainable and balanced growth. Now is the time to act.
As the G20
Inclusiveness has both domestic and global dimensions. At the
domestic level, we must ensure that the benefits of growth and
prosperity are shared by all segments of the society. For this
purpose, we will emphasize issues pertaining to the small and
medium sized enterprises (SMEs) as a cross-cutting subject, follow
up our commitment on strengthening gender equality in employment
as well as addressing youth unemployment. Turkey aims to ensure
that discussions within the G20 resonate with the majority of our
citizens. At the international level, challenges facing the LIDCs will
be raised more vocally by the G20. This will be one of the defining
aspects of the Turkish Presidency.
The G20 has so far taken significant strides in designing and
launching policy frameworks in many areas. In November 2014, as
the members of the G20 we have agreed on the Brisbane Action
Plan and pledged to undertake about 1000 commitments that, if fully
implemented, will add more than USD 2 trillion to the global GDP and
generate millions of additional jobs for our citizens by 2018. Likewise,
for a number of work streams within the G20 including financial
regulation, international tax, and international financial architecture,
words have played their part. 2015 will be the time for the deeds and
the year of implementation.
Finally, Turkey will put a firm emphasis on investments as a powerful
driver of growth. Building on existing works, we will introduce a
new narrative that will address the investment gaps of the member
countries via concrete and ambitious investment strategies.
We wi