The Statement of Presidential Spokesperson Ambassador İbrahim Kalın

We assumed the Presidency of G20 last December and we will conclude our Presidency with the summit, which will be held in Antalya on November 15-16, handing it over to the next President, China.

During its 1-year Presidency, Turkey has achieved many first’s and hosted numerous meetings. Over 70 official meetings have been held at ministerial level between ministers of finance, labor, energy and agriculture. We have highlighted 3 topics within the scope of the G20 agenda. The main program of the Summit will take shape around these topics and discussions will be held about them. These topics are “inclusiveness”, “investments” and “implementation”, aiming to attain a sustainable, strong and balanced growth.

Strengthening global economy and making it more inclusive, sustainable development, monitoring the implementation of decisions at both the national and international level and increasing investments are reflected in the final communique.

As you know, the global economy is facing many tests. One of the most critical matters here is to maintain a sustainable and balanced growth. While approaching growth from a quantitative viewpoint, it is very important to take quality into consideration. Economic growth is also of significance to increasing employment and to efficiently using the means we have.

I would like to express that, during Turkey’s G20 Presidency, we have exerted great efforts to include women and the youth more in the economic life and to eliminate the inequalities and the discrimination against women in business world. For the first time in the history of the G20, Turkey launched the Women-20, an outreach group of the G20 and it will be one of the permanent outreach groups of the G20. I will give more detailed information about the outreach groups.

In terms of inclusiveness, investments and implementation, one of the matters we focused and insisted on is supporting the SMEs, because SMEs are one of the main economic units that employ 60-70% of the world economy. That is the case both in Turkey and in other major economies in the world. We have comprehensively discussed, during our one-year-long Presidency, strengthening and integrating SMEs with the global economy, providing financial access for them. For the first time under Turkey’s G20 Presidency, World SME Forum was established. Thanks to this forum, we discussed ‘What kind of steps can we take to support SMEs at both national and international level? What kind of programs can be developed?’ We will continue to keep them on our agenda.

Another important topic of Turkey’s G20 Presidency is integrating the low-income less developed countries with the global economy and the G20 economies. It is one of the areas we meant by “inclusiveness”. As you know, Turkey assumed the secretariat of the least developed countries since 2009. There is a project we are currently carrying out at the UN to promote at least 48 least developed countries in the world to the level of developing countries in 10 years. Turkey, as a member of the G20, efficiently uses its G20 Presidency to provide new global economic means for world’s poorest and least developed countries. One of the matters we focused on during our G20 Presidency is energy. In the history of the G20, energy ministers gathered together for the first time. They discussed in detail how to provide access to energy in Sub-Saharan Africa and in various regions in the world. Another problem between the less developed countries and the developed countries is waste of food and food security. Agriculture ministers discussed these matters in detail during their meeting.

One of the significant results, yielded during these meetings, is that G20 countries pledged to increase the global economy by 2.1%. This equals to approximately $2 trillion. When these promises are kept, the world economy is expected grow at least by 2.1%, $2 trillion. We formed a mechanism to monitor these reform promises. The details regarding this will be discussed in detail during the summit.

Another important topic of our G20 Presidency was the work and projects carried out by the outreach groups. There are currently 6 outreach groups under Turkey’s G20 Presidency. They consist of the business world, operating as NGOs, labor unions and NGOs. They are Youth 20, Women 20, Civil 20, Think 20, Business 20 and Labor 20. They held their own meetings and prepared for the summit. Tonight, Mr. President will meet with their representatives and be briefed about their preparations. We will reflect their proposals to the G20 Summit, enabling these outreach groups to exchange views with leaders at the Summit.

Climate change is another important topic we will discuss at the Summit. This is a global matter and it is on the agenda of all developing and developed countries. What kinds of measures should be taken at both national and international level concerning the climate change? This was discussed in detail. Last week, Mr. President held some kind of preparatory meeting via teleconference under the moderation of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. Mr. President will attend the conference on climate change, which will be held in France by the UN at the end of the month. Development and climate change will be discussed at a special session during the summit. There are many other matters, development, trade, competition, taxing, IMF reform will be discussed in regard to economic and ecological matters.

Political issues are also discussed during the G20 Summits. At the summit, held in St. Petersburg during Russia’s Presidency, the Syrian crisis was discussed. For chemical weapons were used during those days, there was an intense agenda for non-proliferation and prevention of chemical weapons. During last year’s leaders’ summit in Australia, the crisis in Ukraine and the issue of Crimea was discussed in detail. During the working dinner the G20 leaders will have on Nov. 15, the deepening refugee crisis and global terrorism will be discussed. They will have a chance to asses other political matters during this dinner.

6 working meetings will be held during the summit. Some of them will be working sessions, some working dinners. We expect the visiting leaders to arrive in Antalya as of the 14^th of Nov. During this process, Mr. President will have many bilateral meetings. We are working on the schedule. Mr. PM will host a reception on Nov. 15 as a part of the G20 Summit.

Finally, our relevant units, logistics, security, media, our task force are sharing the necessary documents with the press. You can acquire them on g-20.org. All security measures and logistic preparations have been completed. We hope and expect that a productive and successful summit that will contribute to stimulating global economy will be held.

The outcome of the summit is of great significance to particularly the developing countries in terms of creating jobs for the health of global economy and realizing sustainable growth. We hope to crown our G20 Presidency, which we successfully have carried out so far, with this summit. We will together monitor the implementation of the decisions, taken during the leaders’ summit under Mr. President’s chairmanship, within the scope of the G20 platform.