ANKARA (AA) - Rifat Hisarciklioglu, chairman of Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) said on Wednesday that Turkey should have focused on enhanced relations with the US.
"During its financial transformation process, Turkey has benefited so much from the European Union (EU) so far. It has had foreign trade relations much more with the EU. We would like to catch this level with the US as well," Hisarciklioglu told after a dinner hosted for representatives of the United States Chamber of Commerce (USCC), who paid a visit to Turkey.
Hisarciklioglu stressed the importance of Turkey's position with regards to public finance, real sector and banking system saying, "Turkey's economic structure is strong. Just for this year, we've started 5 big projects costing over $ 40 billon including 2 nuclear plants, an airport in Istanbul, a bridge in Istanbul, highway between Istanbul and Izmir and high speed train line between Istanbul and Ankara."
Myron Brilliant, executive vice president and head of International Affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, also underlined the need of strengthening economic relations between the two countries.
In his statement Brilliant said, "General relations will be stronger if the economic relations are strong.... There are big uncertainties in the Middle East. So Turkey and the US should think of taking much more concrete steps."
"We should enhance relations with Turkey much more. We could do this with a cooperation agreement or free trade agreement," he added.
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