First Employment Working Group Meeting was held on 26-27 February 2015 in Antalya
The first G20 Employment Working Group (EWG) Meeting was held in Antalya on 26-27 February 2015 with the participation of the members of the EWG, representatives of international organizations and invited countries. Representatives of L20 and B20 as well as T20 also attended to certain sessions in order to discuss outreach activities of the EWG.
The meeting was the first EWG meeting under Turkish Presidency and actually the first official G20 EWG meeting with the transformation of the former G20 Task Force on Employment (TFE) into the current EWG. The meeting provided an excellent opportunity to review achievements, to address the challenges that remain, and to discuss the way forward.
The meeting started with the opening remarks by Mr. Erhan Batur, Deputy Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security of Turkey and the co-Chair of the G20 EWG. Delegates from China and Australia, the members of the troika and co-chairs of the EWG, made short opening remarks as well. As the next year’s presidency, it was China’s first time in the troika at this meeting.
Turkey’s Minister of Labour and Social Security H.E. Mr. Faruk Çelik also gave a welcome reception for the G20 EWG delegates and wished them every success. Minister Çelik also announced that a joint meeting between Labour and Finance Ministers will be held in September in Ankara.
The initial action taken by the EWG members was to discuss and adopt the Terms of Reference for the EWG which was prepared in consultation with member countries by the Turkish G20 Employment Team.
During the meeting, delegates exchanged views on a number of topics of mutual interest. Among these issues were:
- Strengthening the link between employment and growth
- Enhancing policy coherence between Growth Strategies and Employment Plans
- Impact of labour income share on employment and growth
- Trends and progress on youth employment
The EWG will continue its works in accordance with the agreed agenda at the next meeting which will take place on 7-9 May 2015 in İstanbul.
