CAIRO – Turkish businessmen highlighted on Wednesday the need to cancel entry visa for Egyptians within efforts to upgrade Egyptian Turkish cooperation, the official Middle East News Agency reported. Mohamed Boweik Akshi, the chairman of Turkish exporters council, who is in Cairo among a businessmen delegation, told Turkish satellite channel NTV on Wednesday that entry visa must be cancelled to offer facilities for Egyptians. He called for removing all obstacles and difficulties in the Egypt-Turkey Free Trade Agreement in addition to solving bureacratic problems at airports of both countries. The Turkish official emphasised that trade in Egypt will be increased in the upcoming period by signing trade and energy agreements. Meanwhile, Egyptian Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said at a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan late on Tuesday in Cairo, that Turkish investments in Egypt are planned to increase to $5 billion (LE29.8 billion). Both premiers agreed on increasing trade volume between the two countries. Sharaf unveiled cooperative agreements between Cairo and Ankara to strengthen ties, saying all political views of both countries are almost the same. Erdogan highlighted his country's keenness to boosting bilateral ties and cooperation between Egypt and Turkey. Boweik Ashki added that this visit is very important economically and politically, expecting that Egypt would be soon the second country following Iraq in terms of the volume of Turkish trade. " The Turkish official pointed out that entry visa with several Arab countries has been cancelled, and "if this happens in the case of Egyptians, it will be in the great interest of both sides ," he said. The volume of trade between Egypt and Turkey hit $3 billion last year.
