Tuzmen calls increasing trade ties best way to overcome global economic crisis

Speaking at a seminar meeting on Turkish-Iranian trade ties and economic cooperation in Iran's Mashhad city as part of an official visit to Iran with a large business delegation, State Minister for Foreign Trade Kursad Tuzmen said yesterday that he saw increasing bilateral trade ties and investments as the best way out of the ongoing global economic crisis. "We will increase our trade and industrial investments, this is the best way to overcome the global crisis," he said. Tuzmen said that Mashhad was an ideal place for Turkish businessmen to enter Iranian and Asian markets, and also said that Turkey wanted to create a single economic zone with Iran. Underlining that Turkish construction companies carried out prominent projects successfully in the global markets, Tüzmen said Turkey was ready to share its experiences with Iran in this field. Tuzmen yesterday also met with Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoodi. Speaking to reporters about the meeting afterwards, Tuzmen said that Iran would reduce customs tariffs as part of the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement as soon as possible. He said in 2001 trade with Iran amounted to $1 billion and that they managed to increase this number to $10 billion by the end of 2008. He said that the next target was $20 billion of bilateral trade with Iran.