Zeybekci: Over 3,000 Iranian Firms Operating In Turkey

Tehran, May 14, IRNA - Turkish Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci said that 3,350 Iranian companies are currently operating in Turkey. Zeybekci made the statement in response to a question by Altan Tan, the representative of Turkey’s Kurdish province of Diyarbakır and Peace and Democracy Party in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, about Iran-Turkey trade. He added that the companies have invested about $101m in Turkey. Zeybekci noted that in 2013, a major portion of Turkey’s imports from Iran pertained to oil and its byproducts, gas, plastic products and copper. In April, Umit Yardim, Turkish ambassador to Iran, in an exclusive interview with the English-language newspaper ˈIran Dailyˈ said Iran-Turkey have always had good ties in both economic and political fields. Yardim said, “We believe that the two countries’ potentials for economic cooperation are more than their real trade volume.” Last year, bilateral trade stood at $16b, “which was certainly not sufficient”, he added. The ambassador hoped that in the near future, Iran-Turkey transactions will reach $35b per year./end