Turkey working on broad 'employment shield' package

By Belgin Yakisan Mutlu and Elif Ferhan Yesilyurt

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey is working on a comprehensive "employment shield" package to support jobs in the face of the coronavirus fallout, said the country's treasury and finance minister on Friday.

Berat Albayrak told journalists in Istanbul, the country’s commercial capital, that the issue of employment will top Turkey’s normalization efforts.

"For this package, being prepared by the Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry, we also are contributing as much as we can in coordination," he noted.

"We’re doing work that will provide relief to the markets with a package we can call an employment shield," he added.

The government will first manage the normalization process in the markets, followed by the stabilization process, he explained.

With new initiatives to accelerate the country's development, Albayrak stressed that Turkey will manage this period in an integrated and balanced way with the legs of exports, domestic market demand, and tourism.

*Written by Aysu Bicer in Ankara