ANKARA - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned from Austria to Turkey on Saturday.
Erdogan told reporters that he had very positive meetings on economic cooperation in Austria.
''A different process of relations will start between Turkey and Austria not only in regard to bilateral relations but also relations in third countries, and investments that will be made in Austria and Turkey,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan recalled that Turkey paid a visit to Austria in the level of prime ministers for the first time since 1997.
''We had very fruitful meetings with not only the Austrian Chancellor and President but also with the business council. Opening ceremonies and luncheons and dinners we attended were also fruitful,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan stated that Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said that ''positive interest'' that Austria had shown to Turkey's European Union (EU) membership would also continue ''more meaningfully and warmly from now on.''
''Interest of the Austrian President was very different. They also thought that the trade volume of 1 billion U.S. dollars was very low. Need to increase trade volume was expressed in our bilateral meeting with the Chancellor and meetings between the delegations,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan stated, ''Austria is not a country with which Turkey has political and economic problems. But, there is a problem resulting from passage of our trucks. We expressed this issue during our contacts. They said that they would immediately give instruction with a positive approach.''
Pointing out that there were almost 200 thousand Turks in Austria, Erdogan recalled that 70 thousand of them gained Austrian citizenship.
Erdogan said that there were many Turkish businessmen working in Austria and that 117 Austrian companies were working in Turkey.
''Such a reciprocal situation is in question. We have to exert more efforts to increase trade volume. They used the sentence that 'there are many things Turkey can sell us.' We can make investments in Austria in fields of textile, ready-to-wear, food and construction. Or, we can make joint investments in third countries. We discussed all these. We had the opportunity to note that there are many things Turkey can do there in electronics industry,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan stated that an Austrian institution in postal transportation and transportation of students preferred buses of TEMSA and made a deal for four years.
''This is a good expression of how they trust Turkey and how Turkish buses and automotive sector is appreciated. TEMSA will sell 240 buses to Austria with this four-year deal. We delivered one bus today. This is a meaningful part of our trip,'' Erdogan said.
Erdogan expressed pleasure with success of Turkish university students and positive contributions of Turkish workers to Austrian economy during his visit.
He was pleased to hear especially success of workers and hear that no problems were faced in integration, Erdogan said.
Erdogan pointed out that businessmen also had positive contracts.
Noting that they had a meeting to bring together Turkish associations in Austria, Erdogan said that administrators of the associations voiced their problems of negligence so far.
Stating that Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul would pay a visit to that country in fall, Erdogan said that they aimed to solve problems during that trip.
(BRC-AY) 13.07.2003