ANKARA - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Tuesday that Romania was one of the most important trade partners of Turkey in Balkans.
A total of 8,666 Turkish firms and 15 thousand Turkish businessmen were active in Romania at the moment and the investments of Turkish businessmen in this country have reached 420 million dollars, added Tuzmen.
The 21st Term meeting of Turkey-Romania Joint Economic Commission (JEC) has started today under the leadership of Tuzmen and Deputy Prime Minister and Economy and Trade Minister Dan Ioan Popescu of Romania.
Delivering a speech in the opening of the meeting, Tuzmen said that they encouraged Turkish businessmen to make investments in Romania and added that Turkey was ready to support Romanian businessmen to make investments in Turkey.
Noting that Turkish firms have entered many fields in Romania including banking sector due to privatization auctions until now, and they have undertaken works in contractor field worth of 500 million dollars, Tuzmen said that new business opportunities would be opened when the project of transfer of natural gas to Europe via Turkey and Romania would be fulfilled.
Recalling that 8,666 Turkish firms and 15 thousand Turkish businessmen were active in Romania at the moment and the investments of Turkish businessmen in this country have reached 420 million dollars, Tuzmen wanted new legal arrangements to be made to protect residence and work permits of Turkish businessmen in Romania due to EU regulation if Romania became EU member in 2007.
Tuzmen said that new visa regulation which came into force on April 1 in Romania caused difficulties in business circles and stressed that Romania should provide convenience in this issue to protect and further develop relations.
Noting that foreign trade volume which was 755 million dollars in 1996 between two countries has reached 1.8 billion dollars in 2003, Tuzmen said that the target was set as 2 billion dollars for 2004 during Romanian President Ion Iliescu's visit to Turkey last year. He added, ''I envisioned this figure as 2.5 billion dollars. Now I hope we will reach 3 billion dollars.''
Popescu said in his part that political relations between Turkey and Romania were on very good level and this was a good base for development of economic relations.
Popescu thanked Turkey for its support to Romania's NATO membership and said that Romania was supporting Turkey's EU membership.
Noting that they were very pleased with the functioning of free trade agreement which was signed with Turkey and came into force in 1998 and also Turkish businessmen's making investment in Romania, Popescu said that they attributed importance to big energy projects in Turkey and added that significant Romanian energy firms would visit Turkey within this year.
Popescu stressed that Turkey and Romania could make cooperation in Balkans due to their constituent economies.
(GC-AY) 20.04.2004