Babacan: We Should Make Turkey A Center For Production, Investment & Technology
ANKARA - Turkey`s foreign minister said on Tuesday that Turkey should be a leading country in the areas of production, investment, technology, innovation, finance, energy and tourism in parallel with the country`s bid for full membership to EU.
Speaking at a conference in Ankara, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said that Turkey attached a special importance to Africa in its opening policy. He added that it was the right time to develop economic and commercial relations with African continent which grew over the world average in 2002-2007 period.
Babacan said that trade volume with the continent reached 13 billion USD in the end of 2007. He added that Turkey aimed to increase this figure over 50 billion USD by 2012. Babacan said that Turkey would open 15 new embassies in Africa in the next few years.
Babacan said that the first "Turkey-Africa Cooperation Summit" would take place in Istanbul in August. He added that 54 countries were expected to be represented in the summit.
Babacan also said that Turkey was regularly increasing its assistance to underdeveloped and developing countries each year, adding that this figure reached nearly 2.5 billion USD in the end of 2007.
Regarding global warming issue, Babacan said that Turkey, due to its geographical location, was among the countries which would firstly be affected from negative results of global warming. He added that Turkey decided to sign Kyoto Protocol.
Babacan also said that the second forum meeting of Alliance of Civilizations Initiative would take place in Istanbul in April 2009. He added that this would be an important opportunity for Turkey.
Babacan said that the Initiative, which was launched jointly by Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Spanish Premier Jose Luis Rodrigues, had become a UN initiative now. He added that currently more than 80 countries and international organizations took part in friendship group of Alliance of Civilizations Initiative.
In regard to the Turkish tourism sector, Babacan said Turkey`s share in the world tourism market has been growing remarkably. Turkey hosted more than 21 million tourists in 2007 and this figure could increase to 25 million tourists in 2008, he said.
Turkey aimed to benefit from opportunities of globalization and boost its relations with neighboring countries, he stated.
(GC-EÖ)
(DIP)
