Turkey - Bulgarian Joint Economic Meeting Held In Sofia

SOFIA, Jan 22 (A.A) - Deputy Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz pointed to the developing economic and commercial cooperation between Turkey and Bulgaria but added ''We still cannot fully use the commercial and economic potential between our countries.''
Turkey-Bulgaria Joint Economic and Technical Cooperation 15th Term Meeting was held in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia on Tuesday.
Yilmaz and his Bulgarian counterpart Kostadin Paskalev headed the Turkish and Bulgarian delegations.
Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Yilmaz said that the legal background to develop economic cooperation between Turkey and Bulgaristan was completed.
''Turkish and Bulgarian economic structures complement each other,'' he went on to say. ''The products manufactured in one of the two countries is needed in the other and this is a big potential.''
Drawing attention to the increasing Turkish investments in Bulgaria, Yilmaz said Bulgarian companies should also benefit from the investment opportunities in Turkey. ''Here, I'm asking Bulgarian companies to participate in the privatization process in Turkey,'' he added.
Speaking about natural gas projects, Yilmaz said Turkey was enthusiastic about forming a routh through which natural gas would be transferred to Europe via Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania to meet the need in European nations.
Yilmaz said that Turkish companies which transported goods to Europe were facing some problems stemming from high taxes taken from their transit through Bulgaria and asked for an urgent solution to this problem.
Noting that Turkey and Bulgaria had to join the restructuring of Southeastern Europe, Yilmaz noted that participation of both countries in joint infrastructural projects in third countries would have important contributions to both the region and the economy of the two countries.
Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Regional Development Kostadin Paskalev said that the bilateral relations were gradually improving.
Paskalev noted that the problems faced in some issues would be solved in the possible shortest time.
Yilmaz will hold a bilateral meeting with Paskalev this evening and meet with Bulgarian Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on Wednesday morning.
Deputy Prime Minister will hold a press conference on Wednesday.
After meeting with Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Nikolay Vasilev, Yilmaz will return to Turkey.
Yilmaz is expected to meet with new Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov on Wednesday if possible.