Turkey, Italy explore greater economic cooperation

By Aysu Bicer

ANKARA (AA) - Italy’s foreign minister said Thursday that Turkey has great opportunities for economic cooperation in infrastructure, adding that he hopes for more cooperation in railways and other areas in the coming months.

"Both countries have targets in the energy sector as well, especially in energy diversification, and supply improvement," Luigi Di Maio said at a Turkey-Italy Joint Economic and Trade Committee (JETCO) meeting held by video link.

Pointing to important projects on the way, he said Turkey and Italy want to level up their business alliance in sustainable energy.

"Italian companies are particularly active in the field of renewable energy," he stressed.

Saying that the two countries' systems complement each other, he added: "We hope this complementarity continues. I think we can use the potential of this form of partnership in an even stronger way."

On the activities of three working groups under the committee that started in July, Di Maio said these groups are working on areas such as determining economic development areas, opening the way for new operations in Africa, Central Asia, and the Balkans, and making progress on the Turkey-EU Customs Union Agreement.

Turkey has long sought an update to the Customs Union, saying that doing so would benefit both sides.

"There are important opportunities for entrepreneurs in the field of economic cooperation,” said Di Maio.

"The development of bilateral cooperation is important for the growth of our economies," he added.

Saying that existing market access barriers need to be eliminated for this, Di Maio argued that technical development of the Customs Union agreement is extremely important.