UN Development Program to continue working with Turkey

By Munira Abdelmenan Awel and Zuhal Demirci

ANKARA

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on Thursday said it will continue to support various Turkish developmental projects.

Turkey's Strategy and Budget Department, UNDP, and the EU held a meeting to discuss a co-financed project, Total Factor Productivity.

Claudio Tomasi, Turkey director of UNDP, said: "UNDP will keep supporting Turkey's development agenda in different projects and policy recommendations to materialize some of the recommendations that you can find in this white paper."

Tomasi emphasized Turkey's role in the development of the 2030 agenda -- a set of 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) that the UN member states agreed to adopt in 2015.

"Turkey and the Turkish government was very active in the shaping of agenda 2030 and initiation of SDGs. Turkey today is one of the countries that is pushing more strongly to the achievement of the SDGs," he said.

Angel Gutierrez Hidalgo, first counselor of the EU Delegation, praised the finalization of the "the white paper", a policy document settled in October aiming to influence high-level development plans, processes and policies in Turkey.

"This white paper will bring us some tools and ideas on how to perform better. The government can also implement policies that will attract more investment and bring productivity and competitiveness to the economy," he said.

According to Hidalgo, the EU is one of the major trading partners of Turkey. Some 50 percent of total Turkey's export goes to EU member countries. Every 68 euros invested in Turkey out of 100 come from the EU.

The UNDP has carried out different projects with various bodies in Turkey for more than 50 years.