ANKARA - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Monday that they were expecting export worth of nearly 45 billion dollars and import nearly 64-64 billion dollars over program target this year.
Foreign Trade Week which was held by Foreign Trade Undersecretariat started at Ankara Sheraton Hotel.
Making a speech in the opening, Tuzmen said that Turkey fulfilled foreign trade worth of nearly 110 billion dollars in a milieu which world trade volume increased 2.9 percent. He added that world trade volume would increase 4.4 percent this year and Turkey's export amount would reach 100 billion dollars in coming years.
Noting the failure of negotiations carried on by World Trade Organization for development of foreign trade, Tuzmen said that countries would direct towards bilateral meetings due to failure of multilateral meetings on trade.
Tuzmen emphasized that developed countries were using their foreign trade as a foreign policy tool in these bilateral meetings.
Tuzmen said that Turkey was also using its foreign trade as a foreign policy tool and it attributed very much importance to Africa, neighbor countries and central Asian countries. He added that Turkey should develop its commercial and political relations with the countries in its region and it increased technical experience and information accumulation by visiting those countries.
Recalling that they had signed preferential trade agreement with Iran to develop commerce with neighbor countries, Tuzmen said that they thought to direct private sector investments by establishing joint investment company.
Noting that Turkey could undertake important roles on transferring energy sources in Central Asia to western countries, Tuzmen said that Iran, Turkey, Greece energy line would function in a short time.
(GC-AY) 13.10.2003