Turkish State Minister for foreign trade Kursad Tuzmen said that he expects 125 billion USD of exports and 200 billion USD of imports in 2008 at summit of 'Turkey-Africa' on Tuesday.

Minister's foresight on exim - 13 / 05 / 2008 16:36

Speaking at the 3rd Summit of "Turkey-Africa: Foreign Trade Bridge" hosted by the Confederation of Businessmen & Industrialists of Turkey in Istanbul on Tuesday, Tuzmen said recent figures showed Turkey's annual trade volume as nearly 300 billion USD.

He also said that trade volume between Turkey and African countries would exceed 20 billion USD this year, adding that, "Turkey wants to grow with African countries and get a significant share from global trade."

Tuzmen also said that Turkish officials were separately holding talks with Algerian and South African officials to sign free trade agreements with these countries.

He said Turkey should focus on the great potential of Africa in regard to production of foodstuff, adding Africa needs a transformation on agricultural production and the developed countries should assist this process.

Trade volume between Turkey and African countries amounted to 5.4 billion USD in 2003 and the figure became nearly 13 billion USD at the end of 2007, he said.

 "We aim to increase trade volume with African countries to 50 billion USD at the end of 2012," Tuzmen was quoted as saying by the Anatolian Agency.