World Bulletin / News Desk 

Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan held a meeting on Friday with Ukrainian Minister of Economic Development and Trade Petro Poroshenko in Istanbul.

"We want to solve problems related to the free trade agreement and hope to finish it by the end of the year," Caglayan said.

Stating that Turkey and Ukraine were commercial partners, Caglayan said, "In accordance with the targets given to us, we plan to expand our foreign trade volume to 20 billion dollars in 2015 and 40 billion dollars in 2050 with your contribution. I hope today, together with you, we are going to make great progress in the Turkey-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement. Whatever the value of this agreement is for Ukraine, it is the same for Turkey."

Mentioning October export numbers in his speech, Caglayan said the past 12 months export figures reached 149.8 billion dollars.

Caglayan also said that while exports increased, imports decreased and added, "Foreign trade deficit is diminishing. We are moving towards our 2023 target confidently."