Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan said Monday Turkey and Indonesia do not know each other well.
Speaking at the inauguration of the "Turkish-Indonesian Business Forum" in Jakarta, Caglayan said that "had our two countries known each other better, the trade volume could have been 10 billion USD instead of the present 1.7 billion USD".
If the two countries desire, trade volume could reach 5 billion USD in three years and 10 billion USD in five years, Caglayan noted.
The global financial crisis has negatively affected many economies and led to shrinkage of economies. Indonesia has kept on growing at a time of the global crisis and this is a success, Caglayan stressed.
Turkey pays high importance to neighboring countries, regional countries and the countries of the Asia Pacific. Turkey is making great efforts to develop relations with all countries of the world, Caglayan said.
Turkey is at the same time an energy bridge. Turkey can receive energy investments worth up to 128 billion USD in the upcoming few years. Many countries are interested in investing in south-eastern and eastern Turkey, Caglayan said.
I hope that the businessmen of Turkey and Indonesia will conduct face to face meetings and cooperate during the Joint Economic Committee meetings in Indonesia in 2010, Caglayan said.
Following Caglayan's speech, Promex Foreign Trade company signed a protocol agreement to export iron-steel worth 17.5 million USD to Indonesia.
Indonesian Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare, Aburizal Bakrie, said that Indonesia is a giant market with a population of 220 million people.
I invite Turkish entrepreneurs to invest in Indonesia, Bakrie said.
We are pleased to witness the development of friendly and commercial relations with Turkey in the past few years, Bakrie said.
We wish that bilateral investments and commerce would further develop, Bakrie said.
Co-chair of the Turkish-Indonesian Business Forum, Cetin Candan, said that Indonesia is the second country in the world that exports most coal after Australia.
Turkey possesses coal mines that could be used by Indonesia, Candan said.
