Turkic Council Deputy Secretary General Dr. Ömer Kocaman participated in the opening ceremony and the first session of 4th Istanbul Development Dialogues “Breakthrough - 2030" organized by UNDP  on 3rd April 2018. 

 

The global event has gathered more than 400 participants consisting of senior representatives of governments, UN agencies and other high level speakers from civil society organisations. At the opening ceremony, Cihan Sultanoglu,UN Assistant Secretary-General, UNDP Asistant Administrator and Director for Regional Beureau for Europe and CIS in her opening remarks highlighted the importance of taking a forward-looking and action-oriented approach in promoting and implementing the Agenda 2030 and Sustainble Development Goals (SDGs). She touched upon on 3 main challenges in sustainable development regarding the dimensions related socio – economic development, governance and innovation. 

 

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Murat Yavuz Ates, Deputy Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey drew attention to the fact that  partnership between Turkey and UNDP gets stronger and expressed his government’s satisfaction about the transformation of Istanbul into a regional hub for UN and other international organizations. He also emphasized on Turkey’s commitment to implement 2030 Sustainable Agenda ‘leaving no one behind’. 

 

The opening was followed with the session titled “Sustainable development in Europe and Central Asia-where do we stand?  with the participation of Sergey Guriev, Chief Economist at European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Igor Luksic, Director for Southeast Europe at PwC (and former Prime Minister of Montenegro) as speakers. 

Project Directors Zhanar Nugumanova and Pelin Musabay Baki, who will follow the discussions at the event during the whole day, accompanied Deputy Secretary General Kocaman at the opening and the first sessions of the event.