Moldovan, Turkish officials discuss evolution of economic, commercial ties in Ankara

Chisinau, 16 December /MOLDPRES/ - The lately evolution of the commercial and economic relations between Moldova and Turkey inspire us to increase the trade exchanges between the two countries up to one billion dollars and more. Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim made statements to this effect at a 15 December meeting with Deputy Prime Minister, Economics Minister Octavian Calmic, on a working visit to Turkey.      

According to the Economics Ministry’s press service, the PM of Turkey stressed that the Turkish authorities would encourage the business environment to come up with new investment projects in Moldova in all social and economic sectors.   

Also, the Turkish prime minister gave assurances that his country would continue providing technical and other kinds of assistance to Moldova, both within the TIKA programme and other projects. Yildirim gave the example of a social project in Ciadir-Lunga, where the Turkish authorities built a block of flats for the victims of a natural calamity.   

For his part, Deputy Prime Minister Octavian Calmic stressed that the relations with Turkey, which is an important actor in the region, were very important for Moldova and would be developed on all dimensions. “To develop the bilateral cooperation, a commercial and economic representation of Moldova, based in Istanbul, will be opened at the embassy of Moldova in Ankara; the goal of the office will be to initiate and promote bilateral projects,” the economics minister said.       

Octavian Calmic also said that the entrance into force of the Tree Trade Agreement between Moldova and Turkey, which provides more opportunities to carry out joint projects in different fields, was expected to give an impetus to the bilateral ties.   

At the meeting with the Turkish prime minister, Minister Calmic asked for Turkey’s support to set up a centre for training qualified staff for enterprises from southern Moldova, and was given assurances in this respect.  

Binali Yildirim and Octavian Calmic tackled also other issues of common interest for both states, dealing with the fields of education, culture, regional development, as well as regional and international cooperation within various organizations and structures.   

Statistic data shows that, in 2015, the foreign trade between Moldova and Turkey amounted to about 350 million dollars, of which the export stood at 65 million dollars and the import – at over 285 million dollars.  

(Reporter A. Mardare, editor L. Alcaza)