Yılmaz: G20 plays key role as the platform for economic cooperation

Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yılmaz said better integrating all country groups into the world economic system is crucial to bring growth and prosperity to developing countries. Speaking at an event on the G20's contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York over the weekend, Yılmaz said under Turkey's G20 presidency, they have organized close to 100 official G20 meetings so far. He also underlined that Turkey's primary objective is to strengthen inclusive and robust growth through collective action.

Stressing that as the chair of this year's G20, Turkey highlighted three "I's" - implementation, investment and inclusiveness - he said if the G20 growth strategies that were adopted last year are fully implemented, the G20's gross domestic product (GDP) will experience a 2.1 percent increase by 2018. "This means more than $2 trillion will be added to the global economy, which will create millions of jobs. This additional growth is also badly needed given that global growth continues to fall short of expectations," he said.

Underscoring that inequality has been increasing in many countries due to the global financial crisis, Yılmaz emphasized that inequality is at its highest level in 30 years among Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. "Therefore, addressing rising inequality is not only important for social stability but also critical for sustainable economic growth," he added.

Yılmaz said under Turkey's presidency, the G20 established the Women-20 as a standalone engagement group to promote gender-inclusive economic growth and take steps to ensure women's effective participation in economic life. "These steps taken by the G20 will strive to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, which also reflects the Sustainable Development Goals," he said. "This year, Turkey's G20 presidency also focused on reducing youth unemployment. G20 labor ministers adopted a G20 target on reducing the share of young people who are at the most risk of being permanently left behind in the labor market by 15 percent by 2025. This collective target of the G20 will help us better coordinate our efforts and policies to reach our shared objective of reducing youth unemployment." Yılmaz added.