Damascus, (SANA) – Minister of Economy and Trade Lamia Assi affirmed on Tuesday the importance of the Syrian-Turkish Businessmen and Investors Forum in bolstering the growing cooperation between the two countries.

During her meeting with Deputy Chairman of the Justice and Development Party of Turkey Kursad Tuzmen and Turkish State Minister Faruk Ozak, Assi noted that the two countries' achievements during recent years is satisfactory, promising and affirms the honest intent for establishing advanced cooperation relations based on the two countries capabilities and geographic location.

The Minister underlined the importance of the agreements and memos of understanding between the two countries, pointing out to the increase of joint investment projects and trade exchange between the two countries, stressing the need for realizing a mutual vision for developing trade relations, exchanging expertise and learning about investment and development opportunities in both countries.

For his part, Tuzmen affirmed the need for continuing to develop and bolster economic and commercial relations between the two countries, affirming that the Turkish government gives priority to boosting relations with Syria due to their geographic proximity and the fraternity and amity among the two countries' peoples.

Tuzmen expected economic relations to witness rapid growth, lauding the economic development in Syria and stressing the need for exchanging expertise and ideas to push bilateral relations forward. He also pointed out to the growing increase in Turkish investments in Syria.

Syrian-Turkish economic and commercial relations witnessed remarkable development during recent years, with trade exchange increasing from USD 400 million before 2004 to more than USD 2 billion by the end of 2009. Both countries hope that trade exchange will amount to USD 5 billion within the upcoming three years.

H. Sabbagh