ANKARA - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen met on Tuesday with Iraqi Transportation Minister Bahnam Ziya Bulus.
Tuzmen said that their aim was to improve trade volume between Turkey and Iraq and stated that common goal was to facilitate trade by making better good use of transportation opportunities.
Stating that the following period would be a period when Turkey would do its utmost to extend support to Iraqi people, he said that infrastructure work concerning Ovakoy-Mosul border gate which was planned to open to Iraq as a second gate would be completed soon.
Bulus said that relations between Turkey and Iraq would be further improved from now on and stated that they were more free now and they could hold commercial activities easily.
Bulus said that there would be full security in his country within six months or one year and added that Turkish firms could make trade in Iraq more easily.
Meanwhile, it is foreseen that three thousand tenders will be opened for 18.6 billion U.S. dollars of source which was allocated for reconstruction of Iraq. Turkey aims to get 25 percent of those tenders.
(EÖ-AÖ) 30.12.2003