ANKARA - The common target of Turkey and Britain was to increase trade volume between two countries, Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Tuesday.
Prince Andrew, Duke of York and the special representative for Britain's international trade and investment, visited Tuzmen at Foreign Trade Undersecretariat.
Tuzmen said that Prince Andrew was representing the commercial mission of Britain and added, ''increasing the trade volume between Turkey and Britain is our common target.''
Noting that they wanted Britain to show more interest in business opportunities in Turkey on the field of foreign capital and privatization, Tuzmen said that seven billion U.S. dollars of trade volume between two countries was not representing the real potential between Turkey and Britain.
Prince Andrew stressed that they wanted to increase trade and investment volume between two countries and said that he came to Turkey to receive information about economy, trade and investment milieu in Turkey and to encourage British businessmen to make investments in Turkey.
Prince Andrew said that businessmen of two countries could make joint business not only in Turkey and Britain but also in third countries.
When Tuzmen asked Prince Andrew's views about Turkey's European Union (EU) membership, Prince Andrew said that they would continue to support Turkey's accession to the EU.
Prince Andrew said that they hoped that Turkey would take a positive result after six months regarding membership negotiations. He added that they hoped that Turkey would start membership negotiations with the progress report which would be presented by EU in December.
Upon another question Prince Andrew said that there was not any problem between Turkish and British firms.
(GC-AÖ) 25.05.2004