Turkey's minister: Young population brings global success

Turkey's Minister of Labor and Social Security Faruk Celik on Monday said  in order to be successful in global competition Turkey had to raise the number of young population. Speaking at a report launch on "Turkey: Managing Labor Markets Through the Economic Cycle" organized by World Bank and Turkey's Ministry of Development, Celik said unless necessary measures were taken unemployment had the power to affect the next decade. The number of unemployed has surpassed 200 million and reached record levels. Nearly 900 million people  live below 2 dollars, said Celik, citing the World Bank’s “Jobs” report  "600 million jobs are needed over fifteen years to keep current employment rate." "Turkey has felt the effects of the latest crisis in 2009 but recovered fast thanks to our economy that is resistant to the crisis, which is also mentioned in the report launched today. We have created millions of jobs by equipping our active labor force and human capital which require the needs of the market. People who benefit from our active labor forces exceeded 1.3 million since 2009 and the money allocated to the active labor force programs is $5.5 million. We prevented job losses with unemployment insurance and short-time working payment. Between the years of January 2009 and 2013 we have created 4.5 million jobs. Thanks to the disciplined macro economy polices we have implemented, despite the crisis, Turkey grew 9.2 percent in 2010, 8.8 percent in 2011 and 2.2 percent in 2012 by securing the positive growth rate." Celik said financial turmoil was rising day by day in Europe while Turkey was one of the least affected countries from the recession adding Turkey increased its employment rate most amongst the G-20 countries as well as aiding the countries in need. "Despite recent developments in Turkey, there is a still lots to do. Therefore the employment of women and the young is encouraged. In 10 years we would like to increase our exports to $500 billion and the national income per capita to $25 thousand," said Celik. Turkish Development Minister Cevdet Yilmaz said the report shared today was highly important, adding, "All that success Turkey has achieved needs sharing with the rest of the world. Turkey receives proposals from different countries to share its success". Yilmaz said Turkey had to be a more innovation-based county by continuing its reforms. Yilmaz also touched upon the importance of education reforms . Turkey had ambitious targets, said Yilmaz, adding  "These can only be accomplished with the participation of women, the young, the disabled." Yilmaz said Turkey had not only created jobs but also raised the quality of employment. We have also raised the employment rate of women from 23.6 percent in 2009 to 29.5 percent in 2012, he added.