ANKARA - Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen received on Tuesday the Association of Iraqi Businessmen Chairman Thameer Sheikly and accompanying delegation.
Tuzmen said that Turkey continued its services and trade of goods to Iraq.
Stressing that they aimed to increase trade volume between Turkey and Iraq, Tuzmen said that they would do their utmost to help Iraqi people.
Noting that despite all problems, Turkey's exports to Iraq amounted to nearly 580 million U.S. dollars in four months, he said that they could reach 1.8 billion U.S. dollars of exports to Iraq at the end of 2004.
The Association of Iraqi Businessmen Chairman Thameer Sheikly said that he was also accompanied by representatives of Iraqi contracting services companies in his visit to Turkey, stating that they held meetings with representatives of Turkish contracting services companies.
Sheikly said that Turkish and Iraqi companies could offer their bids together for tenders in the process of reconstruction in Iraq and noted that there were many projects in Iraq. Stating that they needed Turkish companies in those projects, Sheikly said that they were paying this visit to Turkey to start lasting cooperation between the two countries. He added that they wanted to make good use of experience and knowledge of Turkish companies.
Stating that Turkey had better opportunities than other neighbor countries of Iraq, Sheikly said that they wanted to further improve cooperation between Turkey and Iraq.
Replying to a question on abuse of Iraqi prisoners, State Minister Tuzmen said that such actions were crimes of humanity and shameful incidents and condemned them.
(EÖ-AÖ) 04.05.2004