3. Workshop for Joung Diplomats “SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN THE BLACK SEA REGION” - Foundation Office Turkey
Online-Seminar
Details
The 3rd workshop for young diplomats on “Sustainable Development in the Black Sea Region” took place on October 12th, 2020 for the first time as an online event due to the global Covid pandemic. 18 young diplomats from 11 different BSEC member states in the Black Sea region took part in the 52nd KAS-BSEC-Workshop, which was jointly organized by the Turkey office of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung and BSEC PERMIS Istanbul. The young diplomats had the opportunity to get to know their official colleagues from the region, even if this time it was only possible online.
Three panels followed the opening and welcoming speeches by Mr. Walter GLOS, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation Turkey and Amb. Michael CHRISTIDES, the Secretary General of BSEC PERMIS. All panels were related to sustainable developments in the Black Sea region.
The first panel was moderated by Amb. Ashot KOCHARIAN, Executive Manager of the Working Group on Energy within BSEC PERMIS. The panel speaker was Prof. Dimitrios MAVRAKIS, Director of KEPA (Energy Policy and Development Center of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) on the topic “UN Sustainable Development Goals - Goal 7: Ensure to Access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all”. In his presentation, Prof. MAVRAKIS gave information on the trends in climate change, the impact of Covid-19 on the global economy and spoke about priorities for sustainable recovery plans.
In panel 2, titled as “The World Bank on Blue Growth in the Black Sea Region”, Ms. Eolina MILOVA, Senior Environmental Specialist from the Bulgaria Country Office, The World Bank was moderated by Ms. Berengere PRINCE, Lead Natural Resources Management, The World Bank, Washington. Ms. MILOVA spoke about the growing global importance of Blue Economy, the challenges of the Black Sea countries to protect their coastal environment, as well as the possible support packages of the World Bank for the sustainable development of the region.
In the third panel, Prof.Dr.Dr.h.c. Şahin ALBAYRAK, Head of the Chair of Agent Technologies in Business Applications and Telecommunications (AOT), Founder and Head of the DAI Laboratory in Berlin, presented the future of digitization using autonomous vehicles controlled by artificial intelligence. This highly interesting presentation met with a great response from the young diplomats. This panel was moderated by Mr. Adrian ALBU, Secretary General of BSEC URTA (Union of Road Transport Associations).
At the end of the event, Mr. Walter GLOS and Mr. Amb. Michael CHRISTIDES thanked all for their participation and expressed their conviction that this year's third edition of the workshop has helped to maintain the momentum of this initiative. In the context of the “new normal” it became clear that international and regional cooperation is more indispensable today than before. The 4th workshop will again take place as a face-to-face event in 2021 - as far as the pandemic permits.
