ANKARA - ''The amount of projects which Turkish contractors have undertaken abroad in the first seven months of 2004 exceeded 3 billion U.S. dollars,'' Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Sunday.
Tuzmen told A.A correspondent that Turkish contractor companies acting abroad undertook 149 projects in the first seven months of this year.
Tuzmen said the total investments made in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Algeria, Morocco, Georgia, Iraq, Iran, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), Kuwait, Moldova, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Oman and Jordan reached three billion U.S. dollars.
He said African countries recently became an important market for the Turkish contractors, stressing that they considered African countries as target countries this year both in exports and contractor area abroad.
Tuzmen said very positive developments were recorded for Turkish contractors particularly in South African countries, and noted that 35 percent of the projects undertaken by the Turkish contractor sector were in Middle East countries, 34 percent of it to European and Eastern Europe countries, 18 percent in Commonwealth of Independent States and 10 percent in African countries.
(AY) 08.08.2004