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Turkish Minister addresses D-8 meeting in Iran

03 March 2010 [11:44] - TODAY.AZ
Turkish Industry and Trade Minister Nihat Ergun said Tuesday that the current intra-trade volume among the D-8 did not reflect the true trade potential.
Addressing the Industry Ministers meeting of the D-8 countries in Tehran, Ergun said Turkey did not only care about its trade volume with D-8 members, but also cared about the trade volume among other D-8 members.

Ergun emphasized that the wind of change in the 21st century brought down custom barriers, redefined economic and political boundaries, and forced static structures to constantly change and made it a must for countries to seek dynamic policies. He said countries which realised these facts began to open their national economies to the world, diversified their products and followed policies trying to gain the upper hand in the global competition.

Ergun said promoting competitiveness was not a task members could undertake alone noting that it required economic cooperation and regional economic alliances. He said the government embraced such a perspective towards the D-8 which represented a wide hinterland with a population of one billion, adding that they attached great importance to enhancing their relations with D-8 members.

He said economic development would bring higher representation for D-8 in political platforms and greater participation in global decision making mechanisms.

Ergun said Turkey's trade volume with D-8 countries rose from USD 2.9 billion to USD 13 billion under the Justice and Development Party rule. He said considering the true potential of the D-8 this volume was not enough.

Ergun pointed out that D-8 countries ranked somewhere between the 23rd and 137th place, out of 183 countries, in the World Bank's "Doing Business" 2010 report, a ranking of convenience of countries for making business. He said this was not satisfactory for any of the D-8 members.

He said this report alone proved that G-8 countries had a long way to go in promoting their competitiveness, enhancing their investment environment, and creating welfare for their peoples.

He said, he believed the Tehran declaration which will be adopted at the conclusion of the meeting would further promote the cooperation among the countries, and help develop constructive dialogue especially in the field of industry.


/World Bulletin/
URL: http://www.today.az/news/regions/62980.html

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