ISTANBUL
Turkish economy minister said on Thursday that global crises could be weathered by global cooperation.
Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan participated in a seminar meeting on "Turkish-Japan Cooperation in Iraq's Energy and Construction Market" in Istanbul.
Turkish-Japanese foreign trade reached 2 trillion U.S. dollars and the two countries' national income was about 6.5-7 trillion U.S. dollars, he said.
After Saudi Arabia, Iraq was the second largest country in the Middle East with its budget worth more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, he said.
Caglayan said that Iraq's oil exports would exceed 140 billion U.S. dollars within the next three years, and this showed opportunities to be offered by Iraqi economy for Japanese and Turkish businessmen.
35 percent of foreign investments in Iraq was made by Turkey, he said, adding that Turkish companies assumed projects worth nearly 13 billion USD in Iraq.
Turkish economy minister meets Turkish, Japanese CEOs
Turkey's Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan met on Thursday CEOs of the Turkish and Japanese companies in Istanbul.
Caglayan met with Yorihiko Kojima, executive board chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation, Rona Yircali, CEO of Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board and several other businesspeople.
According to sources, Caglayan had discussed with CEOs opportunities of a new investment encouragement system in Turkey as well as recent investments by Turkish and Japanese companies in Iraq.
The 40-minute meeting was closed to the press corps.