RABAT - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkish investors were interested in the tourism infrastructure projects to be undertaken in Mediterranean coasts of Morocco until 2010.
Erdogan attended the dinner hosted by Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou in his honor. Speaking at the dinner, Erdogan said that the Turkish government determined the year 2005 as the 'African Year' and that Morocco and Tunisia had an important place in that strategy.
Stressing that Turkish businessmen had constructive meetings with their Moroccan counterparts and took up investment projects, Erdogan said that the economic cooperation between the two countries further intensified. He pointed out to the model cooperation between Foreign Economic Relations Council and Moroccan Confederation of Firms and underlined the importance of the free trade agreement.
''When the free trade agreement takes effect, we expect an increase in the number of Turkish firms operating in Morocco particularly in textile sector,'' said Erdogan and stressed that the 432 million USD of bilateral trade between Turkey and Morocco didn't reflect the potential. Erdogan remarked that Turkish investors were also interested in tourism infrastructure projects to be undertaken in Mediterranean coasts of Morocco until 2010.
Briefly explaining the economic policies pursued in Turkey and their good results, Erdogan said that Turkey became once again the biggest 20th economy of the world with its gross national product of 300 billion USD after the economic crisis it had in 2001. ''Our trade volume also increased to 160 billion USD in 2004. Turkey is still one of the 30 countries making the biggest amount of export in the world,'' Erdogan said.
''Turkey which is at the intersection point of Europe, Asia and the Middle East will be the strongest economic partner of Morocco. In the same way Morocco will play an important role in Turkey's opening to the East, Central and South Africa,'' Erdogan said.
Moroccan Prime Minister Jettou said in his part that they exerted efforts to further improve the bilateral relations.
Before attending the dinner, Prime Minister Erdogan also met Turkish-Moroccan Friendship Association Chairman M. Abderrahman El Kohen.