TECHNOLOGY Turkey is a member to the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) established as a platform of sharing, assistance and research to promote the use of science and technologies for socio-economic development of developing countries. The UN Technology Bank for the LDCs was officially inaugurated in June 2018 in Turkey. The Bank aims to enhance capacities in science, technology and innovation and facilitate technology transfer. The establishment of the Bank marks the SDG 17.8 as the first target to have been reached. As a token of how Turkey values the UN Technology Bank for the LDCs, it covered the hosting and establishment costs as well as committed funding contribution of 2 million USD annually for 2017-2021. Since its inception, the Bank has been working with 12 LDCs. TRADE Turkey as a WTO member accepted the Bali Package intending to apply simplified rules of origin to LDCs, and facilitate access to goods and services markets. In addition, Turkey communicated to WTO in 2015 that it would accord preferential treatment to LDCs beyond market access by 2026. In line with the obligations under the customs union with the EU, Turkey acts along the concessions under the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) applied unilaterally by the EU to many LDCs and developing countries. LDCs are also accorded facilities to benefit from the concessions through more flexible rules of origin. Turkey, through the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) in which it is a member, contributes both to itself and to the development of countries in the ECO region by removing trade barriers in the ECO region, developing intra-regional trade and promoting the integration of the ECO region with global markets. INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS Turkey engages in cooperation in social and economic domains with multilateral international organisations, international funding organisations and bilateral development organisations. The World Bank, UN, OECD, IMF, EBRD, WTO, EU, OIC, BSEC, ECO, and G-20 are leading international and regional economic/financial organisations with which Turkey cooperates. On the other hand, it engages in development- oriented bilateral cooperation through funding organisations such as JICA, KfW and AFD. In this context, infrastructure projects are supported and capacity building activities are undertaken to contribute to sustainable development. EU is one of the significant development partners of Turkey. As an accession candidate to the EU, Turkey benefits from the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) provided for economic, social and legislative alignment with the EU. Various programmes and projects are undertaken in many areas such as regional competitiveness, environment, transport and human resources. Turkey was allocated a total of 4.8 billion EUR under IPA-I (2007-2013), and 4.5 billion EUR under IPA-II (2014-2020). An agreement was settled in 2015 with the EU on providing financial support and sharing responsibilities for the influx of migrants. Under the agreement, EU committed to provide an aid of 3 billion EUR for the years 2016 and 2017 in the areas of education, healthcare, labour market and humanitarian aid. Turkey is the permanent chair of COMCEC, one of the first international organisations that adopted the Agenda 2030 into its own agenda. In line with a decision made at the 30th Ministerial Session of the COMCEC in 2014, a study was prepared with the title Critical Success Factors in the Implementation of SDGs in Member States of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The work identified cooperation and partnership, capacity building, good governance, finance, data and monitoring, and policy coherence as the 6 critical factors to achieve SDGs in OIC member states. Since 2014, 24 institutional capacity building projects have been funded in 7 LDCs (Afghanistan, Gambia, Mozambique, Sudan, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Mali) under the COMCEC Project Funding. Through these projects, 14 public entities in those LDCs received financial and technical assistance. In addition to the annual core budget contribution, our country contributed more than 2.5 million USD voluntarily to UNIDO as of the end of 2018. UNIDO Office in Ankara, operating as UNIDO Regional Cooperation Hub with costs covered by Turkey, 129 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
undertakes various projects in areas such as energy efficiency
in industry, clean production, combat with climate change,
and nanotechnology. The funding for such projects come from
the Global Environment Facility and Multilateral Fund for the
Implementation of Montreal Protocol as well as from Turkey.
In addition, some recent projects for Syrians under temporary
protection in our country are implemented by financing from
countries such as Japan through UNIDO Turkey Office. Our
country hosts workshops for the participants from countries
in or outside the region cooperating with UNIDO, and shares its
technical knowledge through UNIDO.
The High-Level Interim Review Meeting for the Istanbul
Programme of Action of 2011-2021 adopted in the Fourth
United Nations Conference on LDCs was held in 2016 in
Antalya, Turkey. The Political Statement at the conclusion
of the meeting called for action to give a new momentum to
the Istanbul Programme of Action, to increase the support
to LDCs and develop new approaches as well. Focusing on
the development of 47 LDCs, which constitute one eighth of
the world population but accounts for only 1% of the global
economy, these meetings were hosted by Turkey, which is a
sign of strong commitment to the principle of “leaving no one
behind” at international level.
31 When the fees for transfer of operating rights as committed by the private sector to pay to the public authority in return for the transfer of PPP project operating
rights to the private sector are added to the said amount, it reaches 139.8 billion USD.
Turkey proposes to establish a UN Youth Center and host it
in Istanbul with a view to contributing to the implementation
of the UN Youth Strategy which contains 2030 Sustainable
Development Agenda dimension as well.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
For more than 30 years, Turkey has been utilising the public-
private partnership (PPP) model which brings financial and
technical capacities of private and public sectors together
through joint initiatives. In the said period, 238 PPP project
contracts were concluded. A total of 206 PPP projects were
commissioned, with 32 ongoing projects. Turkey stands as
a leading country in the world in terms of the size of PPP
market, with the total amount of 63.7 billion USD contracted
for PPP project investments.31
The PPP model is mostly employed in transport and healthcare
sectors. In the healthcare sector, the construction of city
hospitals with 30,000-bed capacity started in 2011, with 8
hospitals commissioned to date.
In the transport sector, 18 out of 56 airports were built through
the PPP model, accounting for 83% of the total passenger
traffic. The PPP experience derived in airport construction
and operation has become an important item for exports. In
addition, certain segments were commissioned in the North
Marmara Highway and Gebze-Orhangazi-Izmir Highway,
Turkey’s first highway construction projects as of 2016.
A most successful PPP project in terms of sustainability is the
Eurasia underwater Tunnel that connects the Asian side of
Istanbul with Europe reducing the otherwise 100-minute trip
to 15 minutes, contributing both to CO2 emission reduction and
to passenger safety and comfort.
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“Strong Ground towards Common Goals”
- CONCLUSIONS As Turkey moves forward economically and socially, it also prioritises environmental protection in line with its global responsibilities in the development journey from past to future. While progressing, it endeavours to foster cooperation and partnerships to assist all countries particularly LDCs, to move forward together. The concept of “sustainable development” has been integrated into NDPs, as well as sectoral and thematic national policies and strategies since the UN Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio in 1992. The progress to date regarding sustainable development has contributed to Turkey’s achievements towards SDGs. As a result of its speedy adaptation, Turkey has already integrated most of the targets directly or indirectly in the existing policy documents. Our legislation includes almost all elements of sustainable development. In the overall context of SDGs, Turkey stands above global averages, particularly in respect of policies, strategies and legislation. Institutionally, remits and responsibilities of public agencies fully overlap with SDGs. As a country with an average annual growth rate of 5.5% in the last 17 years, Turkey has achieved significant progress in development and increased prosperity for all segments of the society based on effective social policies in areas such as eradicating poverty, reducing inequalities, ensuring gender equality and improving access to basic services. Policies to reduce inter-regional infrastructural disparities and promote technological advancement across the country particularly has marked an inclusive development pathway. This impacted positively Turkey’s global position in converging with SDGs. Looking into the future, it will focus on maintaining the pace of progress, and improving quality and effectiveness of services. Turkey is among the top performers in eradicating poverty. Pro-poor policies in sectors such as employment, social security, education, healthcare, and housing have substantially contributed to this outcome. Healthcare is another field where Turkey has made significant progress. Major changes and reforms in physical infrastructure, service quality, access to services and financial support within the framework of the Health Transformation Program that has been implemented since the early 2000s led to substantial improvements in terms of SDG3 indicators. It is necessary to take additional measures to address the issues of non-communicable diseases, preventive healthcare services and health problems of growing elderly population. With 39% of its population under 24 years of age and average age of 32, youth constitutes the largest potential for Turkey’s development. With significant steps regarding access to education, net schooling rates at all levels of education have substantially increased. Right to education ensures equal opportunities for all. Further work is underway to increase the quality of education, including through improving teachers’ qualifications, and developing personalities and abilities of individuals based on equal opportunities. Nearly the entire population have access to clean water and sanitation through targeted investments. In the context of efficient management of water resources, master plans for 25 basins were completed; and work is underway for river basin management plans. Turkey has made considerable progress towards energy related SDG targets and has already secured electricity access for all. In that context, Turkey accords great importance to clean energy generation through renewable energy resources to ensure diversification, to reduce import dependency, and to curb greenhouse gas emissions. Share of non-hydro renewable resources (wind and solar) in total electricity supply increased significantly. Large investments have been made to improve transportation infrastructure and public access to services in 2000-2018. Works to enhance the railway network are underway, particularly large subway investments are continuing in the metropolitan cities. Increase in the high-speed train passenger transportation is expected to accelerate after the completion of ongoing constructions. In the context of regional integration the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway connecting Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, has been completed. Share of R&D expenditure in GDP increased from 0.51% in 2002 to 0.96% in 2017. Private sector’s share in the total R&D expenditures increased from 28.7% in 2002 to 56.9% in 2017. One of the critical elements determining the R&D and innovation capacity is the size of workforce in the field of research. As of 2017, the number of researchers in full-time equivalents (FTE) is 111,893; number of R&D personnel in FTE is 153,552 and the percentage of R&D personnel in FTE employed in the private sector is 57%. Inclusion of all segments of society is supported through improving urban infrastructure and access to services, reducing inter- regional disparities, strengthening service delivery capacity of local governments, and expanding inclusive approaches. Work is underway to build planned settlements which are resilient to disasters, safe, have accessible integrated transport networks and to efficient waste management system. Effective urban regeneration policies and mechanisms have been developed, which have helped addressing slum housing problem. Urban regeneration projects are implemented to rehabilitate the wear-down in urban areas with changing functions and non-compliant building stocks including particularly disaster risks. Thereby, urban expansion is restricted to a certain extent. In addition, conditions are prepared to build the new building stocks in a more energy efficient way. Measures will continue to be taken to prevent urban heat islands due to high-rise buildings. 131 TURKEY’s 2nd VNR 2019 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Strong Ground towards Common Goals”