Macedonian premier says Turkey most important strategic partner of Macedonia

IZMIR (A.A) - February 1, 2012 - Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski said on Wednesday that Turkey was the most important strategic partner of Macedonia. Macedonian Premier Gruevski attended Turkey-Macedonia Trade and Investment Forum in the western province of Izmir.  Delivering a speech at the opening of the forum, Gruevski said perfect political relations between Turkey and Macedonia would also contribute to improvement of economic relations. Turkey has become a regional power and contributed to peace and stability in the international platform, he said. Turkey also extended great support to Macedonia, he said. Gruevski said that Macedonia signed free trade agreements with all EU countries and Turkey, stating that trade volume between Turkey and Macedonia rose to 400 million U.S. dollars with the free trade agreement. Macedonia was supporting an objective set by businessmen to increase the trade volume to 1 billion U.S. dollars, he said. It was very easy to make business in Macedonia, he said, adding that Macedonia was waiting for more Turkish companies. Macedonian Minister Without Portfolio Hadi Neziri said that Macedonian government attached a great importance to Turkey. More than 100 Turkish companies had investments in Macedonia, he added.