ANKARA - Kursad Tuzmen, Turkish state minister, confirmed that Russian President Putin's visit to Turkey will take place on December 12th. In a press conference in Ankara, Tuzmen stated that ''the 4th meeting of the Turkish-Russian Federation Joint Economic Commission will take place between November 30th and December 2nd, 2004 in Moscow.'' ''Our annual trade volume with the Russian Federation is at about 10 billion U.S. dollars. We intend to increase this amount to reach 14-15 billion U.S. dollars in 2005,'' told Tuzmen. State minister Tuzmen reminded that the issues of ''visas for businessmen, natural gas purchases, export of Turkish goods and services, money owed to Turkey by the former Soviet Union, natural gas reserves and distribution problems will be taken up during the meeting with the Russians.''
-TURKEY'S TRADE WITH S.AFRICA- On the other hand Tuzmen recalled that the trade volume between Turkey and South Africa reached 1 billion U.S. dollars this year.''
''We will visit South Africa, with representatives from the Turkish textile, food, kitchen appliances, iron-steel products, automotive parts and chemical products industries,'' told Tuzmen to reporters. Within the past two years, Turkey has increased her exports to Africa by 30 per cent. ''We have begun talks to sign a Free Trade Agreement with South Africa on July, 2004 and will try to make progress on this matter,'' remarked Tuzmen.
''Between today and November 1st, I will participate meetings of the World Free Regions Economic Operation Union as its head and will underline the importance of free trade regions in Turkey and in the world,'' noted Tuzmen.
-FIRST JOINT ECONOMIC COMMISSION MEETING WITH IRAQ AFTER THE WAR-
''Thamir Ghadban, Iraq's oil minister, will visit Ankara between November 2-6, 2004 during which we shall hold a joint economic commission meeting,'' also expressed Tuzmen. This will be the first joint economic commission meeting after the Iraq war. ''Among the topics that will be handled with the Iraqi delegation are mutual incentives for investors, elimination of double taxation, customs cooperation, oil and natural gas projects and the re-construction of Iraq,'' said Tuzmen. Tuzmen also added that they will discuss security for land and railway transportation between Turkey and Iraq, money Iraq owes to Turkish businessmen, increasing the daily number of trains to Iraq and banking between the two countries. According to minister Tuzmen, ''Turkey's annual exports to Iraq have reached an impressive amount of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars.''
(ES-ULG) 26.10.2004