TURKEY HOPES TO START FTA TALKS WITH M`SIA BY APRIL

By Nor Faridah Abdul Rashid and Samantha Tan Chiew Ting

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 (Bernama) -- Turkey hopes to initiate Free Trade
Agreement (FTA) negotiations with Malaysia by April this year after a very
positive exploratory talks between the two countries recently.

"Hopefully by April, we will launch the FTA negotiations," Director-General
of European Union Affairs at the Undersecretariat of Prime Ministry for Foreign
Trade of Turkey Husnu Dilemre told Bernama in an interview.

Dilemre had led a Turkish delegation to Malaysia for the exploratory talks
on a possible FTA between the two countries which he said would enhance
bilateral relations and trade.

"Both countries will commit a feasibility study. We will conduct ours and
come back together to see what we have achieved and then the Malaysian side
would take this to the Cabinet. We will wait for that," he said.

Turkey is the gateway to Europe, Middle East, North Africa, Central
Asia and Caucasia. It is the world's 15th largest economy, with a
population of 72 million and a gross domestic product of US$742 billion.

Asked whether there would be any obstacles which could prevent the FTA
from being sealed within a short period, he said that on the contrary it "was
much more positive."

"To be honest, sometimes a country would need some time to think and this is
the trend in the world, but for Malaysia and Turkey, we are ready to seriously
engage to develop and enhance our trade.

"I don't think there will be any problem between Turkey and Malaysia, but we
will see what will happen in terms of trade in goods, services and investment,"
he said.

Dilemre said that a FTA could pave the way for better conditions for
investment flow between the two countries apart from presenting opportunities to
diversify and boost trade volume significantly.

For 2009, total trade between Turkey and Malaysia stood at about US$975
million, with exports of about US$860 million while imports amounted to US$115
million.

Malaysia's major export products are palm oil, electronic circuits,
textile,
yarn, rubber and rubber accessories while Turkey mainly exports iron and steel
products, tobacco, boroxides, carpet and floor rugs, wheat flour and
transformers.

Dilemre also pointed out that there were sectors in Malaysia which "have
competition problems.

"But if you look at Turkey, they (the sectors) complement each other, we
believe in that and studies had shown this," he said.

Apart from Malaysia, he said that Turkey was also keen to have FTA talks
with other Asean countries like Singapore and Indonesia, and India but had yet
to initiate any kind of exploratory talks.

"We are going to start with Malaysia first and other Asean countries could
take this as an example and be attracted to it," he said, adding that Turkey is
set to launch FTA talks with South Korea after a couple of initial talks.

Among the countries that had sealed FTAs with Turkey are Macedonia,
Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Tunisia, Morocco, Syria, Egypt, Albania,
Georgia, Montenegro, Serbia and Chile.

There are also ongoing FTA negotiations between Turkey and countries like
Lebanon, Gulf Cooperation Council, Ukraine, Libya, Faroe Islands, Mauritius
and Seychelles.

Dilemre said a 30-member Turkish business delegation, with the support of
the Undersecretariat for Foreign Trade, would be visiting Malaysia between
Sunday and Jan 26.

"Turkish businessmen from the food sector will discuss business
opportunities with their Malaysian counterparts especially in wheat flour,
confectionery, glucose, pulses, fresh fruits and vegetables," he added.

-– BERNAMA