Erdogan Says Turkey Has Become 18th Biggest Economy In World

ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that Turkey has become the 18th biggest economy of the world with its foreign trade volume.
     Addressing the Turkish-German Economy Congress, Prime Minister Erdogan said that Turkey had very important political and economic relations with Germany and having good relations with Germany would help Turkey`s EU bid.
     Referring to the developments in Turkish economy, Erdogan said that Turkey`s growth rate was 9.9 percent in 2004 making Turkey one of the top countries in the world whose economy grew so rapidly.
     Erdogan said Turkey was ranked the first among OECD countries in respect of growth rate, adding that the inflation rate also decreased to one-digit number (9.3 percent) for the first time.
     Noting that Turkey`s total foreign trade exceeded 100 billion dollars for the first time in 2003 and reached 117 billion dollars, Erdogan said that Turkish and German companies should look for cooperation opportunities in third countries and take common initiatives.
     ``We expect German authorities to encourage German companies to undertake common initiatives in third countries including Iraq by benefiting from the experience and capacities of Turkish companies,`` Erdogan said.
     Erdogan said that Germany, which was the biggest economy in the EU, was an indispensable partner and friend of Turkey.
     ``Further development of relations with Germany in all fields is in line with the strategic interests of both countries,`` said Erdogan.
     Stressing that Germany was the number one trade partner of Turkey, Erdogan said that the trade volume between the two countries exceeded 21 billion dollars in 2004.
     Erdogan said that Germany was the third country which invested the most in Turkey, adding that German investment in Turkey constituted 13 percent of the total foreign capital investments in Turkey.
     Erdogan said that 2.7 million Turks lived in Germany, adding that 60,000 Turkish entrepreneurs in Germany undertook investment more than 4 billion Euros. These business enterprises had a business volume of 25 billion Euros and provided employment for 300,000 people, Erdogan said, praising the financial and technical cooperation between the two countries.
     Erdogan said that 4 million German tourists came to Turkey as of 2004 and 50,000 Germans were residing in Turkey, thanking the support Germany gave to Turkey`s EU bid.

2005-05-04