Minister Işıkhan Chaired the Round Table Meeting titled ‘Social Protection, Labour Life and Social Services’

In the opening speech of the meeting, Minister Işıkhan expressed his pleasure to come together to exchange views to strengthen the cooperation of the Turkic States in the fields of labour life and social protection.

Recalling President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement that the Organisation of Turkic States is a strategic structure in terms of regional and global cooperation, Işıkhan said: ‘With a common mind, our President and the leaders of our other member and observer countries are determinedly working to make the organisation not only a platform for cooperation, but also a structure that will enable the Turkic nations to unite and come together around common ideals. We carry out every work that we will do with this awareness and consciousness and do our best to create a stronger structure.’

Minister Işıkhan emphasised that they see the meeting as a step towards furthering the existing cooperation between the countries and developing joint projects that will provide mutual benefit, and continued his words as follows: ‘We are keen to deepen our cooperation, especially in strengthening social protection systems, strategies for regulating labour mobility between Turkic states, protecting workers' rights and making social services more accessible. New cooperation in the field of social protection and labour life will not only increase the welfare of our countries, but will also help us to provide a better life for our citizens.’

Following Minister Işıkhan, Secretary General of the Organisation of Turkic States Kubançbek Ömüraliyev, Minister of Labour and Social Protection of the People Sahil Babayev, Minister of Labour and Social Security of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Sadık Gardiyanoğlu and Director of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation Labour Centre Azer Bayramov also made speeches.