IZMIT - U.S. Istanbul Consulate Policy and Economy Department Chairman Stuart Smith said on Wednesday that they wanted Turkey to be an economically strong partner of the United States in its region.
Speaking at a meeting of Kocaeli Chamber of Industry Assembly, Smith said economic relations should be further improved.
Smith said annual trade volume between the two countries was 6.5 billion U.S. dollars, and noted that Turkey was one of the 10 big trade partners of the United States.
Smith said investment was important in economic relations, and noted that there was not much U.S. investments in Turkey, and that investments should be increased. However, he noted, U.S. entrepreneurs could not find appropriate atmosphere for investment because of legal problems, inflation and tax bureaucracy.
Stating that Turkey's trade with Iraq increased following U.S. intervention in Iraq, Smith said they knew that Turkish companies had projects in Iraq worth of 5-6 billion U.S. dollars. He said furthermore Turkish companies launched initiatives to be subcontractor of the firms of the United States. Smith said this was very important both for Turkey and for re-construction of Iraq. He said Turkey should strengthen its economic power also in this sense.
Smith said positive developments were recorded in Turkey in the past two years in economic sense, stressing that, Turkey had successful results on banking system, finance policy, fight against corruption and inflation. He said the United States wanted everybody in Turkey and in the world to reach prosperity.
(AY-AÖ) 25.02.2004