Egypt and Turkey: Trade exchange to reach $ 10 billion

Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the inauguration session of the Egyptian-Turkish economic forum.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the Egyptian-Turkish economic forum, Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said that Egypt and Turkey should play an effective role in the region.

Egypt and Turkey enjoy great potentials in natural resources and a huge market stretching to African and Asian continents, he added.

The region's future depends on recognizing the role played by Egypt and Turkey, Sharaf said, noting that this role lies on two pillars; politics and economy.

He further said that the two countries share identical views on the Palestinian cause along with the situation in Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia and Iraq.

"We pledged to increase the volume of trade exchange between the two countries to reach 10 billion dollars over the coming four years," Sharaf said.

Osama Saleh head of the general authority for investment and free zones, for his part, confirmed that the volume of Turkish investments in Egypt amounted to $ 1.8 billion.

The general authority for investment has made a number of proposals aimed at boosting cooperation between Egypt and Turkey.

Thus, the trade exchange between Turkey and African countries will increase and the joint ventures in Africa will be established, Saleh added.