Turkey offers ways to expand Turkic-speaking countries' cooperation
13:19, 22 December 2016
BAKU. KAZINFORM - Creation of an economic union, transition to free trade and extension of customs privileges are needed for expanding the cooperation between the Turkic-speaking countries, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci told reporters in Baku, trend.az reports.
Economic relations between the Turkic-speaking countries do not conform to the existing potential, according to the minister.
"Population of the member countries of the Turkic Council (Cooperation Council of Turkic-Speaking States) is 115 million people in total and these countries' national incomes total $1.2 trillion," Zeybekci said. "Despite that the total foreign trade turnover of the Turkic-speaking countries is $600 billion, the trade turnover between these countries is only 2 percent as of today. We need to bring this figure to 5-10 percent."
"If the Turkic-speaking countries strengthen the economic relations, ties in the political and other spheres will also be expanded," the minister added.