During its G-20 Presidency, Turkey will prioritize actions that will contribute in strengthening the global recovery, enhancing the international economic system and supporting sustainability. Turkey aims to play the role of a bridge between the developed and less developed economies by helping the latter to increase their voice in the world economy.

Turkey took over the G-20 Presidency from Australia as of the 1^st December 2014. Taking into account the agenda and priorities of previous G-20 Presidencies as well as the emerging topics within the international economic system, the Turkish Presidency has defined three main priorities which are “Strengthening the Global Recovery and Lifting the Potential”, “Enhancing Resilience” and “Buttressing Sustainability”. The G-20 foresees in the course of the year 2015 to take collective actions to ensure a more inclusive and robust growth. Compared to previous G-20 Presidencies, Turkey is the first country to show real determination in tackling the challenges faced by  less developed countries with the aim to encourage their integration to the international economic system.

In order to achieve global recovery, a special emphasis is given to improving the macroeconomic policy cooperation among the G-20 countries to ensure a strong, sustainable and balanced growth. It is also foreseen to take new measures to improve the investment climate and to encourage investmenta by the private sector for infrastructure and SMEs. Within this framework, initiatives to develop more efficient Public-Private-Partnerships will be encouraged. Following the recession after the global financial crisis, increasing employment and creating qualified jobs continue to be an important priority for the G-20. In this regard, one of the main missions of Turkey during its Presidency is to monitor the implementation of the Employment Plans where the emphasis is given to the improvement of women’s participation in the labour force and to the reduction of youth unemployment. In the light of the commitments made by leaders of G-20 to resist protectionism, the Turkish Presidency will support the efforts in the multilateral trading system. In the meantime, a special attention will be given to better integrate the SMEs particularly those of the developing countries to the global value chains.

In order to enhance the resilience of the international economic system, the Turkish Presidency will seek to finalize and implement the new financial regulation,  to complete the IMF reform by establishing a more effective and efficient international financial framework (especially by strengthening the IMF surveillance), ensuring the smooth transition to a fairer and more inclusive international tax system as well as fighting corruption by ensuring the effective implementation of the 2015-2016 Anti-Corruption Action Plan and by increasing transparency of the relations between government and business.

Within the objective of buttressing sustainability, the emphasis will be put on three areas which are development, energy sustainability and climate change finance. The development constitutes an integral part of the agenda of the Turkish Presidency since G-20 needs to be prepared for the United Nations Summit that will take place in September 2015 where the Post-2015 Development Agenda is expected to be adopted. Turkey gives great importance in integrating developing and low income countries into the world economy as well as ensuring the food security in the developing countries. Turkey will be the first G-20 Presidency to implement the Food Security and Nutrition Framework. Turkey will also give importance in enhancing the role and contributions of the private sector in development.

With regard to energy sustainability, the Turkish Presidency will focus on the issues related to the access to energy sources and to boost the investments in  energy.  The ways to encourage investments in renewable energy will be explored as well to improve the transparency of the energy market.  Climate change also constitutes an important priority for the Turkish Presidency since it is expected to reach an international agreement on climate change in December 2015 during the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC. On the other hand, the Turkish Presidency will give a particular attention to the financial aspects and the needs of the low income developing countries.

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