ROME - Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister Sami Guclu said on Thursday that Turkey was preparing for cooperation with New Zealand on agriculture field.
Guclu gave information to A.A correspondent about his bilateral meetings during United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) 32nd term meetings. He said that they launched initiatives to make cooperation with New Zealand on various fields and to make Italian entrepreneurs make investment in Turkey on agriculture field.
Noting that he met with Agriculture Minister of New Zealand James Sutton during the meeting, Guclu said that they took up cooperation opportunities on agriculture and various fields between Turkey and New Zealand. He added that they especially discussed joint investments on stock raising and the facilities of New Zealand for importing of animals for breeding to Turkey.
Guclu said that they wanted Italian entrepreneurs to prefer Turkey for making investments on agricultural field, adding that he visited Maccarese Firm within this scope near Rome yesterday. He said that they had visited the firm to draw the attention of large scale enterprises which made investments on agriculture in Italy. He added that he expressed his views on making joint investment in Turkey and cooperation on seed and stock raising fields and he received information about those issues.
Guclu said that they decided to start an initiative to make Italian entrepreneurs direct towards Turkey by the help of Trade Attache in Rome. He added that they thought that not only Maccarese Firm but also large scale enterprises and capital groups that made investment in agriculture in Italy would be interested in Turkey, noting that they would start an activity on that field.
Recalling that he had met with high-ranking Turkish experts working in FAO during the conference, Guclu said that they received the evaluations of Turkish experts about agricultural problems in world scale and discussed what could be done to make the contributions of experts to Turkey more productive. He added that Turkish representatives in FAO could have very important contributions in Turkey.
Guclu had met with FAO Director General Jacques Diouf yesterday and got promise for FAO support to projects concerning Turkey.
Diouf, who was invited by Guclu to Turkey, had said that they were positive to the suggestion to turn Ankara branch of FAO to an office that could serve surrounding countries.
(GC-AÖ) 04.12.2003