Stating that the world had been faced with a global challenge due to the coronavirus pandemic over the past year, Erdoğan said: “The pandemic, which has so far claimed the lives of three million people in 192 countries, has revealed a great amount of crookedness across the world. It has been bitterly experienced during the pandemic era that merely material wealth is not enough to ensure social justice and prosperity.”

Underscoring that Turkey had since the very beginning drawn attention to the importance and necessity of international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, Erdoğan noted that not only Turkish citizens had been provided with the most advanced healthcare service, but friendly and brotherly countries had also not been abandoned to their fates, with medical supplies that had been delivered to 157 countries and 12 international organizations.

Also pointing to the domestic vaccine studies, Erdoğan said: “Once the necessary processes are completed, we as Turkey will put our domestic vaccine, human trials of which are currently underway, at the disposal of the entire humanity with the principle of ‘leaving no one behind.’”

“We have worked to strengthen the organization and enhance the regional cooperation”

“We have worked to strengthen the organization and enhance the regional cooperation in line with the priorities Turkey has announced during its presidency,” Erdoğan noted. “The road to being strong and effective goes through having well-educated youth. In this sense, we support UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ Youth 2030: The UN Youth Strategy. We continue our works to spearhead the targets set out within the strategy.” 

Further stressing that high technology and innovation are key to becoming prominent in the competitive structure of the economy, Erdoğan said: “In order to achieve strong and sustainable growth rates, we must focus on hi-tech production with high added value.”

“We believe the idea of an Islamic Megabank which would meet the liquidity needs of Islamic financial institutions as well as meeting the rising financial needs of infrastructure projects in the Muslim geography, is feasible,” Erdoğan said.

“We must focus on trading with local currencies in order to protect our countries from exchange rate risks”

“Steps should be taken in order to renew the D-8 in accordance with today’s needs, to turn it into a project and result-oriented organization, and to accelerate the decision-making processes. As I expressed during our previous summit, I believe we should further strengthen our organization with new members and partners, and expand its area of influence,” Erdoğan said.

Recalling his call during the 2017 Istanbul Summit for trading with local currencies, Erdoğan said: “The developments in the past 4 years have proven how felicitous this call was. In order to protect our countries from exchange rate risks, we must focus on trading with local currencies.” (ILKHA)