Turkish premier says Germany should extend most support to Turkey's EU accession

HANOVER (A.A) - 28.02.2011 - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Germany should extend most support to Turkey's EU accession among EU countries.
Speaking at the Turkish-German Economy Congress in German city of Hanover, Erdogan said, "Turkey is one of the countries which weathered global economic crisis with minimal impact. Turkey showed a great resilience against economic crisis thanks to sound reforms that were fulfilled in the country in the past eight years. The country started to record growth as of the end of 2009."
"We predict that Turkish economy grew by 7-8 percent in 2010," he said.
Erdogan said that Turkish government achieved a great success in fighting high inflation, stating that it was 6.4 percent at the end of 2010, which was close to the one in Europe.
"We are inviting our German friends to make more investments in Turkey. The country passed through a great transformation in regard to democracy, human rights and economy," he said.
"We hope that Europe will see Turkey's power in economy and assess Turkey's accession talks in this respect. We consider that Germany is the country which should extend the most support to Turkey's membership," he said.
Erdogan said that they expected assistance especially from businesspeople in Germany. 
Premier Erdogan said that Turkish businessmen contributed a lot to German economy and nearly 70,000 Turkish enterprises were operating in Germany.
"Germany is the number one partner of Turkey," he said.
Erdogan said bilateral trade volume was about 29 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2010 despite global economic crisis.
Erdogan said that Turkey offered many opportunities for foreign investors with its young and dynamic population, liberal economy, qualified labor force and competitive industry.
"There are numerous important investment opportunities in the sectors of energy and environment in the region where Turkey is located," he said.