Algiers

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the trade volume between Turkey and Algeria had been 5 billion USD in 2012 and added, "I am wishing that the trade volume between us will reach 10 billion USD in the shortest time. We desire a balanced increase in bilateral trade volume for the favor of both countries."

Erdogan who is visiting Algeria on an official visit delivered a speech at the Turkish-Algeria Business Forum and said despite the distance between two countries, they had kept a close relationship all the time.

Erdogan highlighted that they paid special attention for economic and commercial relations between two countries to move forward and said, "We are working hard to establish the necessary infrastructure for our private sectors to carry on with better cooperations. We took another step forward today and decided to initiate Free Trade Agreement negotiations."

Turkish prime minister also underlined that as well as business people, connection between two nations, were increasing too and said, "There are more than 100,000 Algerian tourists visiting Turkey and what I believe is that Turkish citizens should visit Algeria with a similar rate too. That is why we also discussed these with Algerian officials. We have lifted visas with more than 70 countries and I wish that we will achieve that with Algeria too."

Following Erdogan's remarks over the visa issue, he was applauded in the hall for a while.

"There is a serious consensus, as you can see it. We wish to see more Algerian friends in Turkey which is their own home too. The progress in our relations reflect into our trade figures. Turkey comes the 7th in Algeria's imports and the 8th in its exports", continued Erdogan.

Prime Minister Erdogan highlighted that Turkish Airlines (THY) had been holding mutual Istanbul-Algiers flights once a day, and now they stepped in to increase that to three times a day.