Minister: Turkey to raise trade volume with Iran to dlrs 20 billion

Ankara, Jan 27, IRNA - Turkey`s State Minister for Foreign Commerce Kursad Tuzmen said Ankara was planning to raise the trade volume with Iran to dlrs 20 billion.

He made the remarks in an exclusive interview with IRNA before leaving
here for Tehran, leading a 160-member trade and economic delegation.

He described Iran and Turkey as two big countries in the region with
high economic and trade potentials and believed they could easily
implement their capabilities in furthering the two countries? national
interests and joint benefits.

He said he had already planned meetings with his Iranian counterpart
Masoud Mirkazemi as well as other ranking Iranian officials and was to
attend a seminar focusing on the ways of expanding trade cooperation
between the two countries.

Saying that the volume of trade exchanges between the two nations
barely amounted to one billion dollars just a few years ago, the
minister put the present figure at over dlrs 10 billion annually and
said the two countries were working to raise it to dlrs 20 billion.

He said during the visit he will focus on expanding banking
cooperation between Iran and Turkey among other things.

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