LISBON - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that they had the desire of bringing relations between Turkey and Portugal to a level which constituted an example especially within the European Union (EU).
Erdogan came together with Portuguese businessmen at breakfast in Portugal. State Minister Ali Babacan, State Minister Kursad Tuzmen and a number of Turkish businessmen were also in attendance at the meeting.
Speaking at the meeting, Erdogan said that it was impossible to say that the cooperation potential that existed between Turkey and Portugal in many fields was used completely, adding that opportunities of benefiting from this potential to the largest extent in every level should be discussed in their meetings the same day and in coming periods.
''So bilateral economic and commercial relations are important. Figures about these fields show that cooperation between our two countries remain at a modest level. Our trade remains at a very narrow volume like a few hundred million U.S. dollars. Although it can be considered that factors like geographical distance, concentration on specific sectors and production have negative effects on developments of our bilateral commercial and economic relations, it is impossible to overcome these with cooperation programs and measures in several fields,'' he said.
''We have the desire of bringing relations between Turkey and Portugal to a level constituting an example especially within the EU. We believe that such a level in bilateral relations and cooperation could be reached soon, and we think that positive impacts and reflections of this level would be felt also in a wide area beyond Europe. As long as it is achieved, our cooperation can be turned into a close partnership that can cover a large geography from Europe to Africa and Latin America and from Balkans to Caucasus and Middle East,'' the Prime Minister said.
Erdogan recalled that Turkey which was gradually taking place in world economy in globalization process had a Customs Union deal with the EU, signed free trade agreement with sixteen countries and was a founder member of the World Trade Organization.
Erdogan noted that Turkey had been drawing attention of businessmen from the EU, Middle East, Commonwealth of Independent States and Black Sea littoral states in last decade, and it was also playing the role of bridge among those regions.
Stressing that Turkey's influence over Eurasia and other geographies had been gradually increasing as it made use of its new position with the EU and the strategic and economic power it took from this position, Erdogan said, ''and with the power we take from Eurasia, we are developing our economic and political relations with the EU.''
Erdogan stated that Turkey which was one of the top twenty economies in the world had a two hundred billion U.S. dollars of gross domestic product, high growth rate, young and dynamic population, potential to draw big foreign investments, high technology power in every field including defense industry, infrastructure which was rapidly improving and big projects like the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) which was one of the nine biggest projects in the world.
Noting that they targeted to have a rapid economic growth until 2015, Erdogan said progress would be recorded especially in automotive, electronics, chemicals and manufacturing industries, Erdogan said, ''with this objective, I want to announce that foreign investors will be treated same as Turkish investors under the new foreign capital encouragement law which aims to encourage direct foreign investments. In the past, foreign investors had to pass nineteen different stages before opening a company in Turkey, but now they can open a company just in three days. Foreign investors who open company in Turkey can employ personnel as they want, and they can purchase properties easily.''
(MS-AÖ) 02.07.2003