TEPAV and KIEP Share Experiences in G20 Cooperation A meeting jointly organized by TEPAV and its Korean counterpart KIEP opened to discussion the roles of the Korea and Turkey in G20 and their industrial policy experiences.

ANKARA – In the context of its T20 agenda, TEPAV organized a meeting meeting with the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP) on Friday, 13 March 2015. The meeting was opened by Bozkurt Aran, Director of TEPAV Center for Multilateral Trade Studies, and Il Houng Lee, President of KIEP and Former G20 Sherpa of the Republic of Korea

Bozkurt Aran addressed the G20 in the scope of the quest for a new and more efficient global governance mechanism fit for the issues of the twenty-first century. Aran stressed that, so as to keep up with global changes, Turkey and Korea had to adopt a more coordinated action plan. Citing G20 as a unique mechanism to this end, Aran drew attention to the importance of Turkey’s G20 priorities, inclusiveness, implementation, and investment. Aran went on to say that TEPAV was going to address these priority themes with new policy recommendations through the T20.

Il Houng Lee, stressing the need for the support of peer countries to make an intellectual contribution to the G20 agenda, noted that Turkey and Korea were taking action with common themes and could cooperate on this realm. Speaking about the transformation the G20 went through in the aftermath of the global economic crisis, Houng Lee said that the most important theme in the current state was implementation, one of Turkey’s G20 priorities. Lee said that to get out of the global recession, it was necessary to implement committed growth strategies mindful of inclusiveness for sustainability and underpinned by investment and financial stability.

The opening session ended after a congratulatory message by  Seoghoon Kang, Member of National Assembly of the Republic of Korea. Following the opening session were keynote speeches by Kamal Malhotra, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Turkey, and Heenam Choi, Deputy Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea. Malhotra drew attention to the rising role of the G20 following the global economic crisis. Stressing the role of industrial policies in Korea’s economic transformation, Malhotra informed the audience about the UNDP’s work on the Turkish economy and industry.

Heenam Choi, Deputy Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea assessed the joint G20 perspective of Turkey and Korea in the light of the bilateral relations between the two countries. Choi pointed to the fact that the two countries started their economic development journeys in similar periods as well as to their role as “middle powers.” Maintaining that the G20 was able to put out the fire in the aftermaths of the crisis and concrete preventive measures were necessary from this point on, Choi stressed that Turkey and Korea could take important joint action in this regard.

The first discussion session of the meeting entitled “Role of Korea and Turkey in G20” hosted Il Houng Lee, President of KIEP and Former G20 Sherpa of the Republic of Korea; Dongsoo Kang, Special Advisor on International economies to Minister, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea; Mahmut Salih Ünlü, Senior Expert, Republic of Turkey Prime Ministry Undersecretariat of Treasury; and Mustafa Osman Turan, Head of Department for G20 Outreach and Engagement, Republic of Turkey Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The second session of the meeting focused on the industrial policy experiences of Korea and Turkey. Moderated by Dongsoo Kang, Special Advisor on International Economies to Minister, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, Republic of Korea, panelists of the session were  Zu Kweon Kim, Professor, Konkuk University; Esen Çağlar, Deputy Managing Director of TEPAV, and Yoo-Duk Kang, Head of KIEP’s Europe Team.

The meeting ended with closing remarks by Ambassador Yunsoo Cho, Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Turkey.