Todayszaman : Turkish businessmen have signed contracts worth more than $2.5 billion

[tolibya]

Turkish businessmen have signed contracts worth more than $2.5 billion in the eight months since the Libyan government launched 200 large projects worth tens of billions of dollars, according to State Minister Kürşad Tüzmen.

Tüzmen added that he expected the figure to exceed $4 billion by the end of the year. In an interview with the Anatolia news agency, Tüzmen commented, “Turkish firms completed their recruitment in Libya and now they are there again as experts,” referring to contractors that did billions of dollars of business in Libya some 20 to 30 years ago.
Tüzmen said Turkey’s goal for foreign contracts in 2007 was $17 billion and they would achieve this by the end of the year. “Our contract business abroad has reached the next level; contractors are now getting billion-dollar projects while before they were getting projects around only $10, 20 or 50 million. This is a key indication of improvement in this field,” he said. Tüzmen said their strategy to shift focus to oil-rich countries has showed its success with income in those countries doubling or tripling with the boost in oil prices. He said he was sure the achievements of Turkish contractors would be sustained in the future.

Regarding Libya, Tüzmen said: “We set up the Turkey-Libya joint economic meeting which had not been convened for years. We prepared a road map for relations with Libyan authorities.” He said Libya launches billion-dollar projects every year and emphasized that Libyan officials have promised to send delegations to Turkey in order to introduce their projects to Turkish contractors. “They fulfilled their promises and made good use of time in the meetings; we have now begun to harvest the fruits of these meetings,” noted Tüzmen.

Tüzmen also pointed out that the economic value of the projects in Libya which Turkish contractors received this year -- the construction of highways, a port, an airport, housing, university, hotels and business centers -- is highest among all countries. Tüzmen also emphasized that as the number of projects increases, the number of Turkish workers in those projects would also increase and contribute to the struggle against unemployment.