Azernews.Az

By Sara Rajabova

Kazakhstan and Turkey signed an action plan within the New Synergies program in Ankara on Friday. The program envisages increase of bilateral trade to $10 billion and an annual $500 million increase in the amount of investment, the Kazakh presidential press-service reported.

Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev started his official visit to Turkey on Thursday to boost bilateral ties over the 20th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Ankara and Astana.

On Friday Nazarbayev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended a Turkey-Kazakhstan top-level meeting on strategic cooperation and gave a joint press conference in Ankara.

"We hope that Turkish investors will continue to work actively in Kazakhstan," President Nazarbayev said at the press conference following a meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister. "Today we discussed establishment of Kazakh-Turkish industrial zones. Also, it was agreed to increase the efficiency of the economic commission of the two countries."

Nazarbayev said the current Turkish-Kazakh business forum opens up vast opportunities for the development of business partnership between the two countries. Some 50 representatives of Kazakh companies and 600 representatives of Turkish companies are in attendance. 13 bilateral agreements worth $1 billion are expected to be signed within the forum.

The Kazakh president said Turkish and Kazakh officials will sign agreements worth $2.4 billion at a meeting in Istanbul on Friday.

Nazarbayev said there has been a great transformation in Turkey in the past decade and the country filled the ranks of the top economies of the world.

In turn, Erdogan said the Kazakh President's visit raised the relations between the two countries to a new level.

Nazarbayev noted that along with the discussion of Turkish-Kazakh relations in the fields of economy, transport, education and culture, he also tabled the situation in Afghanistan and Syria during his meeting with Erdogan.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul and his Kazakh counterpart held a face-to-face meeting at the Chankaya presidential palace in Ankara on Thursday, the Turkish president's website said.

The presidents of Kazakhstan and Turkey summed up cooperation over the 20-year period and discussed further development of bilateral relations.

Gul said Turkey aspires to move its relations with Kazakhstan forward as much as possible on the basis of a strategic partnership.

President Nazarbayev, for his part, said he appreciated President Gul's support for the two countries' strategic cooperation council.