Turkish state minister for foreign trade said that Turkey was determined to boost its trade with all countries, Anadolu Agency reported.
Zafer Caglayan, together with Syrian Minister of Economy & Trade Lamia Assi, attended ground breaking ceremony of a cement factory to be built by Turkish construction and engineering firm Guris in Syria.
He told reporters following the ceremony, "Turkey-Syria trade volume reached 2.5 billion USD in 2010. Our target is to increase our trade volume up to 5 billion USD."
Asked about plans to establish a free trade zone among Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon, Caglayan said, "the four countries have created the Close Neighbors Economic and Trade Partnership Council (CNETAC). Ministers of trade, energy, tourism and foreign affairs will hold regular meetings in order to establish a free trade zone and boost trade with the neighboring countries. Earlier, Turkey, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon have lifted visa requirement."
Caglayan said that the second meeting of trade ministers of CNETAC would take place in Damascus on February 20.
Referring to the recent developments in Lebanon, Caglayan said that they wanted a new Lebanese government to be formed as soon as possible.
"Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan traveled to Kuwait and Qatar earlier this week with a delegation of nearly 500 Turkish businessmen. Our businessmen held a series of talks with their counterparts and agreed on new projects worth of some 247 million USD. Turkish construction firms have undertaken several projects in Qatar and Kuwait with a total amount of 8 billion USD," he added.
Meanwhile, Syrian Minister of Economy & Trade Assi called on Turkish firms to make more investments in his country.
The cement factory to be built in Syria city of Raqqa will cost about 280 million euro. It will have an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons cement.