Syria desires to boost relations with Turkey

Attending the Syrian-Turkish Economic Forum in Damascus, Syria, State Minister for foreign trade Kursad Tuzmen yesterday met with Syrian Finance Minister Mohammad al Hussein to discuss bilateral economic ties between the two countries. After the meeting, stressing that Syria attaches great importance to promotion of ties with Turkey, al Hussein said, "As an indicator of Syria's this intention, the Syrian people now pay the lowest foreign travel duty to visit Turkey, compared with the duty rates to travel to other neighbors of Syria," and added that after this decision, the number of Syrian tourists visiting Turkey has increased. Speaking to the forum, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for economic affairs Abdallah al Dardari said, "Syria will highly benefit from improving ties with Turkey," and stressed that the Syrian government was decisive to solve all problems of Turkish firms investing in Syria. Also addressing the forum, Tuzmen said, "Bilateral trade volume between Syria and Turkey remarkably rose, 70 percent in 2007," adding that the target for bilateral trade volume was $2 billion by 2008. He added Turkey aims to reach $5 billion bilateral trade volume with Syria in the mid-term.