Tuzmen: We Aim To Make Black Sea A Free Trade Zone

ISTANBUL - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Tuesday that they aimed to make Black Sea a free trade zone.
Tuzmen, who will leave for Ukraine tonight to attend Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meetings, held a press conference.
Tuzmen said that he would go to Ukraine with a trade delegation of 160 people.
Noting that relations between Turkey and Ukraine were very important, Tuzmen said that trade volume with Ukraine had increased 30 percent last year and added that this figure has reached 40 percent in the first months of this year.
Tuzmen said that trade volume between two countries reached 1.7 billion dollars and added, ''our aim is to increase trade volume over 2.5 billion dollars this year.''
Noting that they would meet with Ukrainian President, ministers and other officials during their visit to Ukraine, Tuzmen said that businessmen in Turkish delegation would meet with Ukrainian businessmen.
Tuzmen stressed that Ukraine was very important for Turkey. He said, ''in fact, when we consider Balkan countries, Eastern European and Black Sea countries, we see that we start to take the results of our strategy of developing economic relations with our neighboring and surrounding countries. The amount of export to these countries last year was 51 percent which is more than the general average. The total amount of export to these countries was nearly four billion dollars. We aim to increase this amount to 7.5 billion dollars in a very short time.''
Tuzmen said that the export volume to this region increased 53 percent in the first 1.5 months of this year.
Noting that Turkish businessmen have made investments worth of 40 million dollars in Ukraine until today and also there were contracts worth of 800 million dollars in contractor field, Tuzmen said, ''we should focus more on this field, we plan to build a business center in Kiev.''
Tuzmen said that directors of free zones would accompany him to establish a free trade zone and operate them in Ukraine. He added, ''we aim to make Black Sea a free trade zone. Transportation sector will have a very important role here.''
Upon a question, Tuzmen said that a Turkish delegation would go to Syria by highway between March 4 and 7, adding that a new delegation had come from Africa. He said, ''we gained additional advantage worth of 500 million dollars from Africa. The share of neighboring and surrounding countries in our export volume increased from three percent to 14 percent.''
Noting that export volume of Turkey has increased 40 percent between February 1 and 20, Tuzmen said that there was a decrease of 14 percent for a few days ago which stemmed from religious holiday and weather conditions, but now export volume of 20 days has reached 2.5 billion dollars.
Tuzmen said that when monthly export amount reached 4.5 billion dollars, Turkey would overcome the difficulties and added that export amount worth of 50-60 billion dollars was a good figure.
(GC-AÖ) 24.02.2004