Secretary General of the Turkic Council Ambassador Ramil Hasanov delivered a speech at the high level opening ceremony of the Global South South Development (GSSD) EXPO 2017.

Secretary General of the Turkic Council Ambassador Ramil Hasanov delivered a speech on 27 November 2017 in Antalya at the high level opening ceremony of the Global South South Development (GSSD) EXPO 2017 organized by the UN Office for South South Cooperation and hosted by the Government of Turkey with the participation of 850 participants coming from more than 120 countries.

Before the kick-off of the opening ceremony, Ambassador Hasanov joined the VIP close-knit gathering with the opening speakers, and participated in the family photo asbpart of the opening programme.

The opening ceremony started with the opening remarks of Jorge Chediek, Envoy of the UN Secretary General on South-South Cooperation and Director of UN Office for South-South Cooperation. UNOSSC Director Chediek provided information on the evolution of South-South and Triangular Cooperation beginning with the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) 40 years ago. He thanked Turkey for its continued support to the global and regional development agenda.

Following Mr. Chediek, H.E. Mr. Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey delivered his keynote speech. Mentioning the need to improve the capacities of the developing countries especially in the field of education and technology, Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu extended information on Turkey’s efforts for developmental assistance across the world. He underlined that Turkey is the second largest donor country in the world with 6,3 billion USD development assistance and it occupies the first place when the assistance is compared with the GDP of the very country. Minister further noted that Turkey has just operationalized a technology bank in Izmit, Turkey in cooperation with the UN and that the technology to be developed in the bank will be transfered to the developing countries. At the end of his speech Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu thanked the Turkic Council for its efforts for the materialization of the conference.

At his speech, Ambassador Hasanov expressed that the Turkic Council is privileged to take one of the implementing partners of this global event. Referring to the Memoranda of Understandings of the Turkic Council with UNDP and UNOSSC, he mentioned the activities that the Turkic Council will carry out in the framework of this year’s EXPO. He underlined the firm commitment of the Council to work with UNOSSC in promoting and implementing South-South Cooperation in the region.

Ambassador Galo Andres Yepez Holguin, Representative of the Group of 77 and Adviser to the Undersecretary of International Cooperation of Ecaduar; Ms. Fekitamoeloa Katoa Utikamanu, Under Secretary-General of the UN and High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States; Mr. Magdy Martinez-Soliman, Asistant Administrator and Director of Bureau for Policy and Programme Support of the UNDP and designated Representative of Administrator of UNDP as well as Ambassodor Musa Kulaklıkaya, Director General of SESRIC and Mario Pezzini,Director of OECD Development Center were among the speakers of the opening.

H.E. Çavuşoğlu was awarded with the South South Development Cooperation Award which was presented to him by Director Chediek at the end of the ceremony.

After the speeches, the speakers opened the exhibition within the EXPO with a ribbon cutting ceremony and made a tour in the exhibition area. During his visit to the Turkic Council booth as well as the foto exhibition area, Secretary General Hasanov accompanied Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu and provided him with information on the exhibited promotional material and the photos from the Turkic Council Modern Silk Road Joint Tour Package Familirization Trips taken place in April-May 2017 were exhibited.

Secretary General Hasanov was accompanied by the Deputy Secretary General Ömer Kocaman, Project Directors Pelin Musabay Baki, Ali Çiviler, Farid Damirli, Zhanar Nugumanova, Chief of Protocol Emre Yurdakul, Deputy Director of Financial and Administrative Affairs Araz Salmanov and Research Expert Dastan Almen.

Project Director Pelin Musabay Baki served as the master of ceremony at the opening ceremony of the GSSD EXPO 2017.