KHARTOUM (AA) - Turkey and Sudan signed the Ninth Term Joint Economic Commission (JEC) Meeting's Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and a protocol on maritime transportation in Khartoum, Sudan on Thursday.
Turkish Transportation Minister Binali Yildirim said during the signing ceremony, ''I held meetings with the Sudanese parliament speaker and seven Sudanese ministers. We have seen that there are endless opportunities for development of commercial and economic relations between our two countries.''
Noting, ''we have reached a full consensus under four main topics in the protocol signed after JEC meeting,'' Yildirim said, ''the protocol covers commercial relations, transportation, technical and economic cooperation besides education, culture, health and tourism areas.''
Yildirim noted, ''we have decided to start talks on a free trade agreement in Ankara in March.''
''Delegations of two countries will work on fairs and promotion organizations for the next one year beginning next one month to develop commercial relations,'' he added.
Yildirim said, ''we will continue our initiatives through correspondence to bring into force the agreement on encouragement and protection of investments. Sudan will provide the necessary convenience to TPAO's (Turkish Petroleum Corp.) firm, which explores mine abroad, for exploration of oil in certain parts of Sudan. We have also adopted the participation of this firm in sectoral tenders in Sudan.''
''According to protocol, sub-committee meetings on agriculture will be held in the first half of 2005,'' he added.
Yildirim said, ''with the maritime transportation protocol, related institutions will cooperate in port administration control and security of facilities. Also a seminar will be held in Sudan to increase the participation of Turkish firms in modernization project of Port Sudan.''
(GC-MS)
2004-12-16