ANKARA - Turkey's state minister said on Tuesday that the trade volume between Turkey and Austria was up by two-folds in the last decade.
State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Hayati Yazici announced the trade volume between Turkey and Austria as 1.6 billion Euro in 2007.
"This indicated a two-fold rise in our trade volume in the last decade and the highest figure in the common history of the two countries," Yazici said during a signature ceremony in Ankara.
State Minister Yazici and Austrian Minister for Economic Affairs & Labor Martin Bartenstein signed the protocol of the sixth joint economic committee meeting between the two countries.
Bartenstein is accompanying Austrian President Heinz Fischer, who is paying a state visit to Turkey.
In the ceremony, Yazici said that Turkey earned 620 million Euro from its exports to Austria, and imported goods worth 994 million Euro from this country in 2007.
Yazici also said that there were 335 Austrian companies working in Turkey as of May 2008, and announced the total capital of those companies around 2.7 billion USD.
The state minister asked the Austrian minister's support to simplify visa procedures for Turkish businessmen who wanted to make business with Austria.
Yazici said that Turkey was an indispensable part of the European Union (EU) market within the scope of Customs Union and was progressing on the road to EU full membership with determination.
The minister said that Turkish companies, as companies in EU member states, deserved to be registered to European Chemicals Agency and asked for Austria's support.
Located in Helsinki, Finland, the European Chemicals Agency manages the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction processes for chemical substances to ensure consistency across the EU.
"EU membership is one of the most important goals of Turkey," Yazici also said.
Turkey became a European Union (EU) candidate country in December 1999. The union launched accession talks with Turkey on October 3rd, 2005.
(BRC-AÖ)