THESSALONIKI - Turkish State Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday that economic and political reforms that Turkish government fulfilled paved the way for Turkey.
Delivering a speech at the 10th Thessaloniki Forum Conference, Babacan said that Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government focused on economic and political issues, and stated that they reduced inflation rate which had been earlier 80-100 percent to one digit number.
Stating that they made very important work to attract foreign investments to Turkey, Babacan said that they eased bureaucratic procedures on this issue.
Babacan said that more foreign investments would be made in Turkey with its accession to the European Union (EU) and noted that its accession to the union would also provide Turkish people with more job opportunities.
Stressing that Turkey also recorded important progresses on political field, he said that Turkish people, the opposition, military and nongovernmental organizations also supported reforms which were fulfilled in political field in Turkey.
Babacan said that they expected membership negotiations with the EU to start at the beginning of 2005.
Babacan said that Turkish-Greek bilateral relations changed in the last five years and reached a different dimension.
Stating that rapprochement between Turkey and Greece affected positively tourism and trade, Babacan said that Turkey's trade volume with Greece reached 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.
Babacan stated that there were also preliminary studies on new projects in many fields like transportation with Greece.
Underlining that Turkey would continue to fulfill reforms, he said that they believed that economy would also develop with further development of democracy.
State Minister Ali Babacan is expected to return to Turkey on Tuesday.
(EÖ-UK) 24.05.2004