ANKARA - ''Turkish contractors undertook projects worth of 6.7 billion USD abroad in the first seven months of 2006,'' Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Sunday.
In an exclusive interview with the A.A. correspondent, Tuzmen said Turkish contractors had undertaken projects worth of 9.3 billion USD abroad in 2005. ''12 billion USD target was set for this sector at the beginning of this year,'' he noted.
''Performance of the Turkish contractors displayed in Jan-July period, proves that 12 billion USD target would be fulfilled,'' Tuzmen added.
Tuzmen said more than 50 percent of the projects which the Turkish contractors undertook abroad were in oil producing countries in the Middle East.
Number of projects undertaken in the first 7 months of 2006 is 184 and included 21 countries told Tuzmen, indicating that, ''the projects particularly intensified on Libya, Qatar, Algeria, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Russian Federation.''