Russia, Turkey hope to raise bilateral trade to USD100 billion in 2011

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russia and Turkey hope to raise their bilateral trade to USD100 billion this year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after the first session of the mixed group for strategic planning.

"We have enough capacity to reach the USD100 billion level shortly," Lavrov said. "Our trade is growing quickly and it went up by almost a third last year."

He recalled a number of large-scale projects, like the construction of the Akkuya nuclear power plant in Turkey, the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline and the South Stream gas pipeline. Lavrov noted the high activity of Turkish businesses on the Russian market over the past ten years.

"Turkish economic operators and their Russian partners have signed agreements worth more than USD 20 billion and the Turkish investment in the Russian economy stands at around $ 6 billion," he said. "The tourist industry operates seven-digit figures, as more than 3 million Russians purchased tours to Turkish seaside resorts last year."

"I am sure the flows of tourists will get even bigger and the very process of tourist exchanges will get more comfortable after an agreement on visa-free traveling, which is due to come in effect very shortly, take full legal force," Lavrov said.

"On the Russian side, all the internal formalities have been completed and as soon as Turkey rounds them up on its side, we'll be able to declare the changeover to visa-free traveling," he said, according to ITAR-TASS.