Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) meets with Chairman of BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on May 20, 2018. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here on Sunday that his country wants cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to be enhanced in fields of economy and infrastructure. (Xinhua/Haris Memija)
SARAJEVO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said here Sunday that his country wants cooperation with Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) to be enhanced in fields of economy and infrastructure.
During a joint press conference, Chairman of BiH Presidency Bakir Izetbegovic said that BiH and Turkey have excellent relations.
"Economic cooperation between Turkey and BiH has been significantly increased with a tendency of further growth," Izetbegovic pointed out, adding that in 2017, the trade between two countries was almost 800 million U.S. dollars, which is double more than the amount that was recorded four years ago.
Izetbegovic expressed hope that a new agreement on free trade, to be signed soon, will improve the joint cooperation even more, resulting in trade exceeding the amount of 1 billion dollars.
He pointed out on two most important projects for BiH, the first being a project that will enhance the export of meat from BiH to Turkey. The second involves Sarajevo-Belgrade highway, for which delegations signed a letter of intent on Sunday.
For his part, Erdogan hailed the constructive bilateral talks between BiH and Turkish delegations, pointing out that Turkey will continue to offer all types of support in order to preserve the stability, peace and prosperity of BiH.
"In the short period of time, BiH and Turkey have improved the scope of trade and in short period of time we want it to increase to 1 billion U.S. dollars. We already have the will and desire to achieve it," Erdogan said, stressing that the free trade agreement should be signed in the shortest time possible.
He added that intensive cooperation in the area of infrastructure will continue, adding that Turkish companies are always ready to participate in these projects.
"I believe that Turkish companies will work more on infrastructure projects in BiH, and I believe that Sarajevo-Belgrade project will be the best example of the infrastructure projects," Erdogan said.
Erdogan arrived here on Sunday on a working visit and an election rally as part of the campaign for parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24.
