ASTANA - Turkish Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan, who currently pays a state visit to Kazakshtan, met Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, chairman of the Senate of Kazakhstan`s Parliament, on Monday.
Speaking at the meeting, Toptan said, "Turkey and Kazakhstan, earlier, agreed in principle to establish the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkish Speaking Countries. Preparatory meetings were held both in Antalya, Turkey, and Astana, Kazakshtan, on technical level. Now, we are planning to bring together parliament speakers of those countries soon to create the legal entity of the assembly."
Referring to economic relations between Turkey and Kazakhstan, Toptan said, "our trade volume currently stands at 2.5 billion USD. We aim at bringing it up to 5 billion USD by the year 2010. Turkish businessmen`s direct investments in Kazakhstan amounted to 2 billion USD and their construction services amounted to 8.5 billion USD."
Toptan said that bureaucratic obstacles should be removed mutually to encourage businessmen to make more investments.
Meanwhile, Tokayev said that Toptan`s visit would further consolidate the bilateral relations between the two countries.
(UK-MS)
(DIP)