MINSK - ''Turkey and Belarus will implement an arrangement which will facilitate trade of textile products soon'', Turkish State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said on Tuesday.
Taking the floor at the meeting of Turkish-Belorussian Business Council in Minsk, Tuzmen called on Turkish businessmen to invest in Belarus.
Underlining strategic importance of Belarus' location as a bridge between the east and the west since it had become a neighbor of the European Union (EU) with the last enlargement, Tuzmen said, ''our vision is to re-activate the trade channels and revive economy by increasing joint investments with Belarus in the light of international developments and our approach to the region. Our trade volume increased by 40 percent, and reached 70 million USD in 2004 when compared with 2003. But, when the overall foreign trade volume of the two countries (almost 190 million USD) is taken into consideration, 70 million USD worth of trade is not sufficient.''
Tuzmen stated that their primary target was to increase investments of the two countries in each other's territories, and recalled that Turkish companies had undertaken projects worth 600 million USD in Belarus.
On the other hand, Belorussian Deputy Minister of Economy Leonid Demidov said that foreign investors could participate in privatization in Belarus, and noted that foreign capital inflow in their country had increased by 20 percent in the last two years.
Demidov stated that foreign investors were treated just as domestic investors in Belarus, and provided with incentives, and added that 20 Turkish companies were undertaking projects in their country.