ANKARA - Labor and Social Security Minister Murat Basesgioglu said on Thursday that Turkey was ready to participate in the activities of the European Union (EU) for full employment.
Making a speech in a seminar held jointly by Labor and Social Security Ministry and European Training Foundation, Basesgioglu said that Turkish government attributed special importance to the relations with EU and Turkey took concrete and determined steps on the path to EU membership.
Recalling that Council of Ministers had adopted national program regarding the undertaking of EU acquisition, Basesgioglu said that basic priorities of national program were including individual and collective labor law, labor health and security, social dialogue, prevention of discrimination between men and women and forming a national employment plan which was in harmony with European employment strategy.
Emphasizing that new Labor Law complied with EU's modern labor law, Basesgioglu said that Turkish business life would make important progress within EU norms when regulations on this law were completed.
Basesgioglu emphasized that determining national employment plan and increasing employment were very important for Turkey. He said that the ratio of participation in labor force was 49.4 percent and employment was 44.5 percent in Turkey.
Basesgioglu said that Turkey had a young population and added that creating qualified businesses for this young population and training young people according to the needs of labor force market were very significant.
Basesgioglu said that Turkey attributed very much importance to employment and to be included in European employment strategy.
Noting that Europe wanted to form a competitive economy on the highest level and adopted a strategy which aimed full employment taking productivity as priority, Basesgioglu said that labor force market elements should be very dynamic to fulfill this.
Basesgioglu said, ''we, as Turkey, say that we are ready to share our labor force and dynamism depending on young population with Europe and participate in EU's contribution to create a competitive economy and their activities for full employment.''
(GC-AÖ) 18.09.2003