DAMASCUS - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen expressed on Saturday thought that Turkey and Syria could make significant cooperation in energy.
Tuzmen, accompanied by about 220 businessmen, met with Syrian Minister of Trade Ghassan al-Rifai.
State Minister Tuzmen stated that bilateral relations had gained significant momentum following Syrian President Bashar al-Asad's visit to Turkey in January.
Tuzmen siad that Turkey wished to further improve bilateral relations with Syria and said that cooperation between two strong and influential countries of the region would be a symbol of stability in the Middle East.
Turkey wished to sign free trade agreement with Syria, Tuzmen noted.
Tuzmen pointed out that however, Turkey could understand hesitations of Syria and went on saying, ''when opening to big economies, countries should think about its own industries. Our efforts will serve common interests of two countries.''
Touching on other cooperation opportunities, Tuzmen said that two countries could cooperate in opening of new border gates, organic agriculture and tourism.
Stressing importance of energy, Tuzmen said, ''I believe energy will be an important field of cooperation. Energy projects will be an important cooperation field for us.''
Tuzmen proposed to sign a memorandum of understanding on joint projects.
Rifai, in his part, said that bilateral relations had recently gained momentum and expressed wish to exert more commercial initiatives.
He would present Tuzmen a file aiming to form a joint working commission in order to put into practice issues taken up during Asad's visit to Turkey, Rifai stated.
Rifai said that Syria also wished to form border trade centers and therefore, wanted a border trade center between Gaziantep and Aleppo to be an example.
Proposing that technical teams of two countries should meet to discuss details, Rifai suggested that representatives of private sectors should also join their initiatives because private sector would put into practice joint projects.
Rifai said that he wanted to encourage Turkish entrepreneurs to invest in Syria because Turkish entrepreneurs investing in Syria would be luckier in taking part in Arab market with goods of Syrian origin in coming years.
His country was ready to sign a comprehensive memorandum of understanding with Turkey, covering timetable of joint projects, Rifai added.
(BRC-AY) 06.03.2004