JEDDAH - State Minister Kursad Tuzmen said late on Friday that they aimed to obtain an income of 40 billion U.S. dollars through exports in 2003.
Tuzmen arrived in Saudi Arabia to hold a series of contacts.
Holding a meeting with Turkish businessmen in Jeddah, Tuzmen informed participants on Turkey's targets in foreign trade.
Stating that dynamics of domestic market remained insufficient in meeting demands due to structural problems of Turkish economy, he said, ''so Turkey is obliged to turn towards foreign markets.''
Tuzmen said that it was very important for Turkey to follow a joint exports policy in markets where the country had advantages in terms of geography and logistics.
Tuzmen said that they visited several neighboring countries to increase Turkey's market share in other countries since the country could not decrease its costs and noted that they would have some difficulties till the country supplied its energy, water and financial costs in world prices.
Stating that they had started getting positive results in efforts for increasing exports with neighboring countries, Tuzmen noted, ''our annual exports have remained at 26-27 billion U.S. dollars recently. It was said that exports could not exceed 30 billion U.S. dollars. Then, I said that it exceeded 30 billion U.S. dollars. We are exerting efforts to have Turkey's exports exceed 40 billion U.S. dollars this year.''
Tuzmen said that he believed that his visit to Saudi Arabia would be a brand new beginning in relations between the two countries and stated that current bilateral commercial and economic relations between the two countries were not sufficient.
Tuzmen said that trade with Saudi Arabia gained a great potential especially after the latest developments in the world, and he invited Turkish businessmen to play an active role in Saudi market.
(EÖ-MS) 08.03.2003