On the Turkey-Egypt free-tarde talks

Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Kursat Tuzmen said Tuesday that Turkey attaches great importance to signing a free-trade agreement with Egypt.

In press statements, Tuzmen said that talks are under way with the Egyptian side on signing such an agreement between the two countries so as to double the volume of trade exchange.

He said that Turkey aims at upping the volume of trade with African countries to $ 10 billion, adding that as African and Middle Eastern countries represented very important markets, his government had approved a strategy for enhancing trade relations with them.

Turkey's exports to Africa accounted for $ 3 billion in 2004, according to Tuzmen, who believed that despite the current low levels of per capita income in many African countries, economic conditions in such countries would improve in the future, a matter which made Turkey keen on developing trade with such countries.