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Azerbaijan’s participation in the G20 summit shows the high level of the country’s economy, Turkish Ambassador to Azerbaijan Ismail Alper Coskun told Trend on March 23.

He said Turkey held no discussions on inviting Azerbaijan to the summit.

Once it became known that Turkey, which has chaired the G20 since December 1, 2014, has the right to invite one country to the G20 summit, the idea to invite Azerbaijan arose immediately. “As Turkey’s ambassador to Azerbaijan. I was very pleased with this.”

He said Azerbaijan would be represented at the highest level during the summit within Turkey’s chairmanship in G20. The summit will be held in Turkey’s Antalya city on Nov.15-16. Before the summit, the meeting of foreign ministers, finance ministers and heads of the central banks of the G20 countries will be held. Moreover, the meeting of energy ministers will be held for the first time within G20.

The diplomat noted that Azerbaijan's participation in the G20 summit shows the country's ability to influence the regional and global economy, within the bilateral cooperation with Turkey, as well as trilateral cooperation, including Georgia (taking into account all economic projects that are being implemented).

Azerbaijan’s participation in the G20 summit will allow discussion about the global-scale contribution that can be made with the joint economic projects of Turkey and Azerbaijan, according to Coskun. “This will also allow to put forward new ideas during the summit.”

Alper Coskun added that three main priorities have been determined in connection with Turkey’s chairmanship in G20.

“The first – is the principle of large scale,” said the ambassador. “That’s to say, our aim is to ensure the income equality in the global scale, efforts for development, the participation of women and youth in the process of economic growth.”

“We are confident that the integration of women and youth into the process of economic development will promote the strengthening and stability of the economy,” Coskun added.

The ambassador said that second priority is to fulfill the abovementioned principles. “It is necessary to increase the activities on fulfilling the decision to be adopted at the summit.”

Coskun said the third priority is the investment issue. “Investments made for the development of infrastructure, form the basis of the economy.”

He added that Azerbaijan serves as an example in this regard. “Considerable amount of investments is attracted to the development of infrastructure in this country and this promotes the diversification of economy.”

“In order to use this experience at the international level, we have added this paragraph to the list of priorities,” Coskun said.

The diplomat added that there are also thematic priorities and support for small and medium-sized businesses is among them. “Naturally, we plan to implement all this based on Turkey’s experience as well.”

G20 participants are the 20 largest national economies: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Great Britain, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Canada, China, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, the US, Turkey, France, South Korea, South African Republic, Japan and the European Union.

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