Istanbul, July 1 - The 8^th Executive Council Meeting of Istanbul International Center for Private Sector for Development (IICPSD) was held online on 1^st of July 2020. The meeting was co-chaired by Mr. Emin Sadık Aydın, the Director General for COMCEC and International Development Cooperation at the Presidency of Strategy and Budget of Turkey and Mr. Hoaliang Xu, UN Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Director of Bureau for Policy and Programme Support.

The Executive Council is the highest decision-making authority of IICPSD and consists of the following members: United Nations Development Programme’s Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS), Finance Sector Hub (FSH), Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (RBEC) and UNDP Turkey Country Office; Presidency of Strategy and Budget of Turkish Republic; Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey; Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency (TİKA); The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB); and Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM).

The online meeting was attended by Mr. Rauf Alp Denktaş, Deputy Director General for Multilateral Economic Affairs at Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey and Ms. Agi Veres, Deputy Regional Director and Deputy Assistant Administrator of RBEC as well as Mr. Claudio Tomasi, UNDP’s Resident Representative in Turkey, Mr. Marcos Neto, UNDP Finance Sector Hub Director, Mr. Sahba Sobhani, Director of IICPSD and Gülçin Salıngan, Deputy Director of IICPSD; Ms. Eser Erginoğlu, Deputy Secretary General at TİM, Mr. Uğur Tanyeli, Head of External Relations and Partnerships Department at TİKA; and Ms. Seda Gedik, Liaison Officer for UN, IMF, World Bank at TOBB.

The meeting started with Ms. Gülçin Salıngan’s introduction, followed by Mr. Aydın and Mr. Xu’s opening remarks. Mr. Aydın reiterated the support of the Turkish Government for the Istanbul Center, underlining the importance of cooperation between Turkey and UNDP in private sector engagement in development, and congratulated Mr. Sahba Sobhani’s on his appointment as the Director of IICPSD. He also highlighted the risks posed by the unfolding Covid-19 crisis reaffirm the premise on private sector engagement in development issues once again. Mr. Xu  congratulated the Government of Turkey for their Presidency of 75th UN General Assembly with the historic election of Ambassador Volkan Bozkır as UNGA President. He furthermore highlighted very much the commitment of the Turkish Government as the Partnership Framework Agreement (PFA) between Turkey and UNDP  has been unique in enabling both parties to expand their cooperation at the national, regional and global level including with the establishment of the Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), which is one of five UNDP global policy centers.

Following the opening addresses, the meeting continued with the presentation of IICPSD’s major achievements in 2019. The Center’s 3-year strategy and workplan were delivered by Mr. Sahba Sobhani with contributions from Ms. Gülçin Salıngan. Participants of the meeting shared their comments and recommendations on key topics including progress by IICPSD in 2019, the Center’s leading role in implementing UNDP’s private sector strategy, the 3-year strategy, 2020 workplan and EC decisions.

EC members acknowledged that the role of the Center across UNDP has been advanced with UNDP’s new private sector strategy, and fully agreed that IICPSD is well positioned to take a leading role in the implementation of the strategy.

Mr. Denktaş expressed Turkish Government’s continuing support to the Center, highlighting that the COVID-19 pandemic showcased the key role of international cooperation in various aspects. He then touched upon two priorities of Turkey regarding international development and cooperation: (i) supporting the Least Developed Countries and (ii) strengthening the role of private sector in development, underlining three initiatives towards these priorities which are UN Tech Bank, SDG Impact Accelerator and IICPSD, all in collaboration with UNDP, pointing out the importance of the activities of the Center to harness the role of private sector in building capacity in LDCs and emerging economies.

IICPSD will continue its efforts to support the private sector and foundations to become transformative partners in development through research and advocacy activities, facilitation of public-private dialogue and multi stakeholder-partnerships.