ECONOMIC INTERESTS OF TURKEY AND RUSSIA WILL BE TO THE GOOD OF BOTH COUNTRIES AND EUROASIA
ANKARA - Deputy Chairman of the Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) Zafer Caglayan said on Saturday that the economic interests of Turkey and Russia would be to the good of both countries and Euroasia.
Moscow Mayor Yurly Luzhkov and the accompanying delegation who are currently in Ankara to participate in the First Summit of Ankara's Sister Cities, visited TOBB the same day. Caglayan said during the meeting that Turkey and Russia made trade with its neighbours the most, adding that the two countries, as two important countries of the region, had a great potential to develop their cooperation.
''We must share this responsibility together and benefit well from neighbourhood advantages,'' said Caglayan noting that natural gas constituted a big part of Turkey's imports from Russia.
Caglayan stressed that Turkey had a 2.7 billion dollars of foreign trade deficit in its trade with Russia in the year 2002, adding that ''we proposed a draft agreement to Russia in 2001 to diversify our trade on a balanced way, to sell goods and services to Russia in return to the natural gas we buy from Russia. We hope Russia can accept it.''
Caglayan noted that Turkish contractors undertook projects worth of 10.4 billion dollars in Russia, adding that many of those projects were completed. Noting that the volume of the projects which Turkish contractors undertook in Russia recently shrank, Caglayan said that cooperation in that sector was nevertheless pleasing.
Caglayan noted that Russia was ranked the second among countries that sent tourists to Turkey, adding that 750,000 Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2001 and 947,000 Russian tourists visited Turkey in 2002.
''Turkey and Russia can carry out joint economic activities in East Europe, Caucasus, and Central Asian countries. If the two countries regard each other as rivals, this won't be good for them,'' Caglayan said. He added that the two countries which had a big cooperation potential, had to complement and support each other in the whole region particularly in Central Asia and the Caucasus.
Caglayan said that countries of this geography should cooperate in economy and trade and stated that if economic relations were further improved, political relations between Turkey and Russia would set on a sounder groundwork.
He added that Turkish private sector was ready for cooperation to launch joint initiatives in Russia and third markets.
Moscow Mayor Luzhkov said in his part that they were uneasy about spoiling of the balance in commercial relations against Turkey although there was development in commercial and economic relations between the two countries.
Stating that the trade volume between the two countries exceeded 5 billion U.S. dollars, Luzhkov said that commercial relations increased by 6 percent annually between Turkey and Russia.
Luzhkov said that Russia's export to Turkey constituted 75 percent and his country's import from Turkey constituted 25 percent of trade balance between the two countries and added that it was a dangerous figure.
Noting that Russian government was planning to put taxes on shuttle trade, Luzhkov said that importance of shuttle trade would decrease after this tax.
Underlining the importance of taking measures which would remove the imbalance in trade between the two countries, Luzhkov said that a trade center where Turkish products would be sold should be set up in Moscow.
(EÖ-Öª) 15.06.2003