 So ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this press conference on this special meeting on unlocking resources for regional development in Turkey. Istanbul, my name is Yan Sop, I'm in charge of media at the World Economic Forum, and I have the pleasure to welcome you to this opening press conference. This press conference has two parts, so that you're all aware we will start with the first part, which will be an introduction to the meeting with a few highlights. And after that we will invite our program champions to explain us a little bit more about the program and especially their program topics. At the end of each part I will open the floor for a few questions. We will have about 10 minutes for Q&A, and after that we will close obviously this press conference. So for the first part we have three distinguished panelists with us and they will explain you the context of this meeting. We have Minister Volkan Botskyr, Minister of the EU Affairs with us, we have Mr. Sapsu from Sapsu Consulting, and we have our director and head of Europe who is in charge of this meeting for the World Economic Forum, Nicholas Davis. We will start with Nicholas Davis to give us an overview and after that Mr. Sapsu will give us some thoughts and then we will conclude with Minister Botskyr. Nicholas. Thank you Yan, thank you everyone for being here and thank you to Mr. Sapsu and to the minister for being with us here today. It is a great pleasure to welcome you to the World Economic Forum's special meeting on Unlocking Resources for Regional Development. Today and tomorrow we will be convening over 600 leaders from around the world but particularly from Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East and North Africa under this theme around how we make the most in these three regions of underutilized resources, natural resources as well as human resources and other untapped or unrealized sources of growth and prosperity. Among those 600 leaders over the coming days you will see over 60 public figures, ministers heads of state and we are particularly delighted to be here in Turkey and Istanbul and to have such an excellent representation from the Turkish government, from the Turkish cabinet and of course President Erdogan as well as Prime Minister Davutoglu attending today and then tomorrow. There are three important reasons why we meet here in Turkey at this point in time. The first is dramatic shifts and challenges have been emerging in and across all these three regions that are impossible to tackle alone. And in light of conflicts, humanitarian crises, challenges which are affecting both individual human lives but also having significant knock-on effects to economies and to governance, it's important that we take an opportunity here in Turkey, one place which is very affected and very close to many of these issues, to look at how we can help set the preconditions for long-term growth. It is impossible to unlock resources to realize these collaborations without peace and stability. So this is the first reason why it's important for us to be here together and why it's so excellent to see so many of you, so many participants joining us. The second reason is that Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Eurasia are all great regions but they are all fragile on their own in different ways. Take demographics for one small short example. Europe has only 15% and falling of its population under the age of 15 and 18% over the age of 65 and rising rapidly. That is the opposite in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa which have a large number of youth here in Turkey more than 25% of the population, a great resource that can be used for wealth and future prosperity but one that needs to be balanced and absorbed and used in the most constructive ways as individuals have the opportunity to realize their highest potential. So here by looking at the three regions together and the four themes that we have looked at in the program, shifting energy dynamics, infrastructure as a driver, as a platform for growth, entrepreneurial and inclusive economies and more broadly the future of Turkey and the region, we hope to be able to find new partnerships, new ways of working together to make the most of these resources and through collaboration find that balance. The third reason is of course that Turkey itself is a country in transformation and it's a country of great and rising importance both regionally and internationally. We have since the end of last month a new directly elected president, President Erdogan, a new prime minister and a number of new cabinet members. And so here is an opportunity also at a strategically, a strategic point of time in a strategic position geographically and in terms of regional relations to look at the future of Turkey as well, the future and plans of the new government including the forthcoming G20 presidency which Turkey will take up in December this year. I also just want to finish by recognizing the four program champions who will come up later in this press conference and it's incredibly important to us at the World Economic Forum that at all our meetings we identify leaders who are able to speak to the important pieces of content and represent the key themes of a meeting and today we have with us four of those Majib Jafar from Crescent Petroleum, Yuvay Kruger from WS Atkins, Tarek Sultan Alessa from Agility and Afshin Yurikal from Habitok. So thank you very much to you for being here and I would like to finish by thanking all our members and partners and also Minister Bosqer and his team at the Ministry of EU Affairs who have helped us prepare for this meeting as well as of course Mr. Zapsu, our advisor and someone who's been with us on this journey for many years. So thank you Jan and thank you everyone and welcome to the meeting here in Istanbul. Thank you very much, Nick. Mr. Zapsu if you would please share also a few thoughts and give us a little bit of context about this meeting. Well dear friends, thank you for the possibility and as a 22 year old forum fan and it's been its senior advisor I also would like to take the opportunity to welcome here. And you know the name is the Special Meeting on Unlocking Resources for Regional Development. We need a lot of unlocking resources here I think and the next one and a half days you're going to be sure you will hear very very interesting sessions on that. And the forum liked Istanbul as you all know this is the I think one to third, third Istanbul meeting if I'm not mistaken. I just would like to hope that next time it would be a bigger one than this one. But still we have more than 650 people come in here today and tomorrow and discussing the world's latest issues. And we have I think eight governments or head of states and over 30 ministers from the political side and I believe it is the first please correct me if I'm wrong. It is the first international event for our new elected president and also prime minister here in Turkey. And why Turkey? It's not only because we like as the forum we like Turkey. I think today more and more and I don't say it just for fun more and more I hear it from everybody that Turkey back again since the Cold War has a different possibility is you know between West and East and South and North in all the energy resources coming through and all the it's back against security which I think a lot of people will have to talk during the next one and a half days. Not only economy and you know just look at Ukraine, Caucasian, Nachivan, Iraq, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya as Nicholas said aging Europe, very aging Europe and lack of leadership all over. I think there's a lot of stuff to do here and the next one and a half days the sessions will be that's why very interesting and I urge you to look at the sessions. You know we have four different items building entrepreneurial and inclusive economies. We have infrastructure as a platform for growth, shifting energy dynamics and of course the forthcoming G20 presidency. I'm happy to see that also my country's the Turkish business community is much more interested in the World Economic Forum than it was before so it means we did something right in the past. And again I'd like to thank also our ministry of EU which we started back with the German Bush then went over with Meylut Bay and now thank you very much minister. Thank you. Thank you very much Mr. Sapsu and we will now ask minister to share a few words about his thoughts for this meeting. Thank you. Thank you minister. Ladies and gentlemen I would like to welcome you all to Istanbul and wish the forum participants all the success with fruitful discussions. Of course it's very difficult to contribute after two able participants making very good explanations of the meeting. But I think in diplomacy we have the experience to say that I agree with all what has been said before and make life very easy. However I'll just add to what has been said. We attach great importance to the World Economic Forum meetings as it works for a very valuable objective and which is the improvement of the state of the world. And especially at this juncture of time when we have a lot of difficulties in our region and which is probably affecting the whole of the world security and stability I think having this forum with this title of making resources for regional development is meaningful and I think we will all leave Istanbul after this meeting with a lot of food for thought and a lot of new vision. Of course why Turkey has been chosen to be the host of this meeting is also important and I would like to put Turkey in a context at the very beginning. Turkey is situated at the epicenter of the Afro-Eurosian geography where opportunities and challenges are interact in the most intensive way. And of course having been a Muslim country 99.9 percent of the population being Muslim but also being a democratic country where rule of law is applied and applying the free market economy for so many decades now and also moving towards the European Union membership I think is unique and it separates Turkey from other countries. So that is why I think as the first item why Turkey has been chosen here. Also Turkey will take over the G20 presidency as of 2015 which of course contributes also to our endeavours today here. Other than that the EU accession process has been renewed with strong statements from the new president of Turkey first time elected by the people in the Republican history by the government's program and we call it New Turkey where I think this New Turkey has to meet with the new visions and new possibilities and new efforts for stability and peace in the world. So from that perspective as well I think our meeting has other important significance. To sum up I think challenges of the 21st century necessitates a deeper partnership and cooperation. We acknowledge the importance of dialogue provided by both regional and international meetings including the World Economic Forum. So this special and timely meeting offers us the opportunity for developing our partnerships in key areas that are crucial for boosting growth and employment in our region and beyond. I am thankful for everybody who has contributed and spent really long hours and days for the preparation of this meeting and I wish all the success to the participants. Thank you very much minister. We have actually exactly following the timing so we have about 15 minutes left for Q&A if there are any questions. If there are questions I would ask the person to stand up asking the question to introduce him or herself and tell us for which organisation you are working for and then we will answer that question. I would ask also the questions to be linked to the topics of this meeting. Any questions on the floor? If there are no immediate questions actually then I would ask to proceed immediately to the second part and then I would invite our programme champions to join us on the stage. I would like to thank again the minister, Mr. Sapsu and Nick for their words and then we proceed to the second part of the press conference. Thank you very much. Okay, I would invite people to stay in the room because we will get some interesting insights about the topics, about the programme and you will have the chance also to ask a few questions. If you kindly could stay or at least close the door now. For the second part I would like to introduce our four programme champions that have been already introduced briefly by Nick. So we have Asin Yurka-Kul, who is the chief foreign editor of Haber-Türk TV, Tarek Sultan Alessa, who is the chief executive officer and vice-chairman of the Board of Agility, Mr. Uwe Kruger, who is the chief executive of WS Etkins and Mr. Majid Jafar, who is the chief executive officer of Crescendant Petroleum. I would like to start in that order, so Asin Yurka-Kul is called the future of the region and Turkey's forthcoming G20 presidency. I think a very interesting topic if you could give us a little bit of insight about that. Thank you. Hi everybody and hi my colleagues, I'm here I guess as the only journalist in the panel and it will be slightly difficult to articulate on this after Minister Bosker he gave a great kick start to the debate, however I'll still do my best. So in terms of Turkey's vision and with particular regard to its G20 chairmanship that I will assume next year. The reason I chose to lead the pillar is because I'm mainly interested in what direction Turkey will be taking in the region and what in terms of its diplomatic vision it can offer to the greater region, sorry. With regards to the G20 especially, which is what I would like to focus on but we can definitely take a wider angle if you're interested in that. It's two thirds of the world population and about 90% of the global GDP, that's what the G20 represents and I think what's going to be most important for Turkey in that regard is it's going to be an opportunity for Turkey to really highlight the importance of democratization of global governance. And I think that is something that Turkey it's very close to the heart of Turkey. Most recently I'm sure you've been following the President at the United Nations he made a statement directly addressing that problem especially with regards to the structural issues of the Security Council saying that the world is bigger than five. And I think this might be an opportunity for Turkey to say that the world is bigger than eight. Well perhaps bigger than 20, minister. I'm understanding from the way you smiled that this is probably going to be on the agenda. So I think it will be an opportunity for Turkey to be a voice for the developing countries and emerging economies. So Turkey is well equipped to do that and I'll give you a brief overview as to why I think Turkey is well equipped. Well first of all its strategic location is one plus right next to it. It has a long history with the European Union with ups and downs obviously. It's right at the heart of the Middle East. It can very much relate to the pre and post Arab Spring picture in the Greater Mina region. And it has ties, close ties with the Black Sea region and it's quite familiar with the situation in Ukraine and how the relations between the West and Russia are evolving with the Ukraine crisis at the table. And it's also quite familiar, in fact very, very involved in one of the most pressing issues today in terms of security and regional well-being that's the crisis unfolding in Iraq and Syria. So Turkey's familiarity with these issues allowed the country to have a deeper understanding of the issues and also a better ability to empathize with these issues. So having those I think Turkey's leadership will be important because it will be able to stimulate dialogue about these issues that are not of concern only to Turkey but also the greater region. That being said it will also have to lead a challenging agenda and I'm sure all of you following the region are aware of that. But most importantly the situation in Iraq and Syria and how in terms of the security in the region and Turkey's borders it will be one important agenda. It will be one important item on Turkey's agenda as it takes up the leadership next year and it's also the rising threat of extremism in the region. It's not only something that Turkey is concerned about, it has implications for the West and the United States and Turkey's role is pretty crucial with regards to that too. And again having a challenging agenda ahead of it Turkey will have to demonstrate robust leadership to create constructive dialogue about these issues at hand. So overall I think these are the reasons why the pillar on Turkey's vision is one of the most exciting ones at the summit and we could definitely elaborate on those if you have questions after the rest of the speakers. Thank you. Thank you very much Shafsin. I will introduce you now to Tarik Sultan Al-Assa who has certainly not a less exciting program pillar to represent. It's called Building Entrepreneurial and Inclusive Economist. So I'm also at the heart of our program. So if you could please explain a little bit your insight about this topic. I think first of all this is something that's near and dear to my heart. And I think the first is to focus on what are the characteristics of inclusive and healthy economies. I think they're economies where people have jobs because it's easy to start, run and trade in business. Where women and men are both well represented in the educational system and in the workforce, broadening the overall talent pool that the economy has access to. And where young people have opportunities and hope that safeguards stability in the long run. Where there are fair labor standards, whether you're poor from a minority or a foreign worker in a new country. And finally I think given the times that we are facing today, it's important that we, economies, that people have something to lose from extremism. And I think opportunity is something that will help sort of minimize the risks going forward. So how do we do that? I think the first step is we need to focus on creating jobs. The World Bank tells us that MENA region needs to create 100 million jobs by 2020. Now I've heard that statistic for a while. That means we're well behind that. If we're going to try to make up that much ground by 2020, that's a lot of work that needs to be done. So I would say clearly we have a problem there and we really have to focus on this issue. So how do we do that? I think the first thing we need to do is focus on the low-hanging fruit. And that's in reducing the trade barriers. It's very clear that if the sub-Africa and MENA region alone could get up to 50% of world practices when it comes to basically trade facilitation and reducing trade barriers, that they would get anywhere from a 6% to 30% GDP growth rate. So that's a pretty powerful message. Make it easier to do business and you get 30% more opportunity. I think that's a good deal for anybody. Secondly, actually before I get to the second point, I think it's important, if you take China out of the equation, growth rates in the emerging markets and the developed world are roughly the same. So it tells you that we're missing something in the emerging markets. We're not really capturing the full opportunity that we're confronted with. So secondly, I think we need to make it easier to run and start businesses. And why is that? What do entrepreneurs do? They start businesses. And in the emerging markets, 9 of every 10 new jobs are coming from small and medium-sized enterprises. So it's kind of a perverse situation that we're in where in the part of the world where we need small and medium-sized enterprises to really develop, we're actually doing everything we can to almost rifle that the medicine that we need to basically get the economy going in the right direction. We also need to do better at investing in soft infrastructure. We're doing in parts of the MENA region, we're doing well, I think investing in hard infrastructure. But there are countries where we are really challenged when it comes to investing in education. And investing in education is not just the financial aspect of actually funding these programs. There are many countries in the Middle East, in the GCC in particular, where the expenditure on education is among the highest in the world. Yet the output of that education, when you measure it in terms of standardized tests and what have you, are really not up to international standards and where they should be. And I would imagine that something to do about government incentives and whether it's really worthwhile to, what do you get by educating yourself? And if there's no incentive to educating yourself, I think at the end of the day, you're not going to be putting the effort in and focusing on that. Thirdly, I think we have to make sure that as we grow, that we create opportunities for all segments of the population, in particular women. They're among the most educated parts of our workforce in the Middle East and in the MENA region. And yet we are really not giving them the opportunities that males are getting in these same markets. So we need to do much more about leveraging the resources that we have and that has to start first by taking advantage of some of the most educated segments of our population. I think also we have to do more with young people and giving them a vision that there's an opportunity down the road. There's something that you can actually look up to and actually strive to develop because without that opportunity and without that I think we're really seeing the results and the fruits of that today, the bad fruits, to be honest. So I guess the final message that I'd like to leave is that an entrepreneurial and inclusive economy is not a nice to have. This is an essential for our part of the world. If we don't have it, we're going to be in a mess. And I think that's why we need to really focus on that. Thank you. Thank you very much for that. We will come now to Uwe Kruger who will speak about infrastructure as a platform for physical and digital growth. Also another very important and interesting topic of our program. Thank you, Excellencies. Ladies and gentlemen, infrastructure clearly is at the very core of providing the basis for prosperity and the well-being of societies. And as we just heard before, the minister aptly stating that Turkey is looked at at the center of stability in this region with very strong and democratic, fully legitimated leadership. And so this is the right point in the region to look at how infrastructure and technology is developing. Just three thesis that I would like to put in front of you and that you will see reflected again in the panel sessions that we are going to have on infrastructure, the life cycle approach to infrastructure with former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and then the digital infrastructure developments. First of all, in the whole region, be it here in Turkey, Eurasia, Mina, we will see an even accelerated trend to urbanization. So urbanization specifically demands investments, intelligent investments in the transport and energy infrastructure again in order to provide the basis for growth of these economies and to relate to what you just heard before in order to accelerate growth in order to live up to the full potential of the region that will be crucial. Now, a major ingredient to that is that we embrace technology more here in this development. So digital infrastructure sounds perhaps a little bit unfamiliar to you. What we are talking about is applying big data, so the availability of lots and data, how the public is utilizing infrastructure, how to best use resources in infrastructure. With the computer power that is now available, this will provide a much more prudent utilization of taxpayers' money in the way we develop infrastructure, in the way we focus on what really matters to better infrastructure in the very near future. The iconic projects, as you well know, that are being realized currently in the whole region, if you look at the Middle East, large airports, Jetta Airport, for example, large metro projects from Kuwait, Riyadh, Doha, clearly here in Turkey, the projects that will improve the connection between the Asian and the European part. The airport development, by the way, the first serious consideration again of a large scale PPP project here in the country and again in Turkey is leading that. Very important that we use technology and a data-driven approach to make best use of money and of resources. And finally, to build on what you equally heard before, it is about skills and knowledge management. It is obvious that specifically here in Turkey, we saw momentum building again with regard to economic growth. Unfortunately, there is still work to do to address Yauz unemployment, and that has to do with the skill sets that we need. I can tell you from the perspective of my company, of Etkins, that this is exactly what we are facing. We are hiring engineers across the globe, specifically also here in the region, and we see this skills shortage as a major impediment of addressing more prosperous growth. It is also what you heard before, the question of tapping more in the female talent pool. Very important. And again, here as a comparison, I can tell you that in my company, we have crossed the point in our Asia-Pacific region of more female than male engineers being employed. It is an enormous talent that we have here, and we need to find an appropriate approach in order to invite them. Math and science are the basic basis for everything that we do in engineering. There is a fantastic opportunity for societies here in North Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa, and it builds on a great tradition. If you just think about the export-driven construction and engineering that we have seen coming out of Turkey, and enriching construction and engineering projects in the Middle East and elsewhere, it is a great basis and fantastic track record on which this improved skills and knowledge training can be based. So again, the three drivers, urbanization as the fundamental driver for infrastructure development in transport and energy, embracing technology and new materials to be efficient in what we do, and thirdly, making the best out of the skills we have in our countries here in the region to facilitate and to improve and accelerate growth. That is what you are going to hear more about in the panels. Thank you very much. Last but not least, we will conclude with Majid Jafar who will speak about shifting energy dynamics across the region, the fourth important pillar of our program. Thank you. So some people find it hard to focus on a meeting about unlocking resources and achieving regional development when in two of the neighboring countries where we sit today, there is all-out conflict involving many countries, and that is what is hugging the international headlines at the moment. But I would argue that this sort of focus and this sort of meeting is even more important because it is only with sustainable and inclusive economic growth and development that we can move to a more stable political situation, particularly in this region. Turning to the topic of energy, and it is what comes to mind for many people when you hear unlocking resources for development, it is an extremely apt place to have such a discussion here in Turkey for several reasons. First of all, Turkey itself is a major and rapidly growing energy market. The demand has doubled twice over the last couple of decades, and given the target of 2023 goal of increasing GDP per capita to $25,000 and exports to $500 billion, it is very likely to double again in this short space of time. But Turkey has another important role to play as a transit country and as potentially an energy hub, especially for natural gas. Within less than 2,000 kilometers, which is doable with a pipeline, you have half the world's oil and gas on one side. That is not even including Russia, which is of course another neighbor of Turkey's. In fact, if you look at Turkey's immediate neighbors, they could supply gas for more than a thousand years for Turkey's needs. So clearly there is a role beyond just as a market itself. And then on the other side, Europe, the EU plus the neighboring countries is the largest energy market. So there is an extremely interesting dynamic to be discussed here and there will be several interesting topics following that theme and representation from several ministers, including of course the Turkish energy minister, also the minister of natural resources from the Kurdistan regional government, other countries Somalia, Tunisia and so on. And it will highlight I think the key question which is how to unlock some of these resources with good policy and how to avoid that getting locked with politics. And that is I think the interesting question. The distance from where we are today to Berlin is less than the distance from Houston to New York and we've seen the fantastic revolution in energy in the last few years in the United States. But there are many more borders and a lot more politics from here to Berlin without even looking at from here eastwards to the resource countries. So how to achieve the right policy to unlock those resources and enhance regional development will be the key question. And the final point I want to make to echo some of what my colleague said is that the true resource, the true only sustainable economic resource that all these countries have, whether it's Southern Europe, whether it's the Middle East, North Africa and Asia is its young people. And so the energy resources or the oil and gas that's an important lifeblood for the economy but it's not the brain and it's not what's going to create the growth. So this is why these different themes and indeed with infrastructure as well. These different themes are very linked and interdependent and it's very appropriate that they should feed in together in this meeting. Thank you very much. I think there was a very interesting overview of the different topics for our program and you can follow those program pillars through the program with different sessions. Do we have any questions on the floor? We have some more minutes left. If we have any questions, you can ask them now to our program champions. If there's no question, you will obviously be able probably to interview them or follow them in the different sessions. So I wish you all a very interesting meeting here and I wish you all the best for the two days to come. Thank you very much. Thank you.