ISTANBUL - ''We believe in the bright future of Africa and have confidence in the people of the continent. We would like to have a say in the future of Africa as we did in the past,'' said Kursad Tuzmen, Turkish State Minister, on Monday.
Tuzmen was a guest speaker at the meeting titled ''Turkey-Africa Foreign Trade Bridge'' and sponsored by the Confederation of Turkish Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) today.
''The African Continent is the place of re-construction in a global economy. Turkey can reserve itself a space in the future of Africa by contributing to the development of the continent,'' told Tuzmen.
According to Tuzmen, foreign investors are now looking at Africa as a potential place of future investments. ''We want a balanced economic relationship with Africa. We want a mutually fruitful economic tie. This has been the case in the past and will be so in the future,'' noted Tuzmen.
Tuzmen stressed that the Foreign Trade Undersecretariat of Turkey has implemented the ''Africa Strategy'' since 2003. ''With the declaration of 2005 as the ''Year of Africa'', the economic relations have grown considerably,'' expressed Tuzmen.
Minister Tuzmen underlined that the trade volume between Turkey and Africa increased by 78 percent and reached 9.6 billion USD by the end of 2005. ''Our goal is to develop mutual trade with Africa to 25 billion USD by the end of 2009,'' pointed out Tuzmen.
Turkish contractors plan to join in projects worth over 10 billion USD in Africa in the next three years, said Tuzmen.
Today's meeting in Istanbul was attended by 20 ministers, 40 high level bureaucrats and 500 businessmen from 33 African countries.