Çelik meets Azerbaijani counterpart

BAKU - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish Labor Minister Faruk Çelik met his Azerbaijani counterpart Fizuli Alekperov in Azerbaijan’s capital city, Baku, yesterday to discuss means of increasing trade volume between the two countries.

The mutual trade volume between Turkey and Azerbaijan could increase if the ministries focus on solving various problems, Çelik said to reporters following the meet. 

“Some 800 Turkish businesspeople in Azerbaijan have made investments worth $6.5 billion to date. There are 700 Azerbaijani companies in Turkey [and] 17,000 Azerbaijani citizens work in Turkey. Naturally, there could be mutual problems associated with employment,” Çelik said.

“If the problems are not solved our commercial relations could be hurt. Our trade volume in 2010-2011 went up 43 percent,” he said.

“Turkey has made crucial reforms concerning labor and social security and we are ready to share our experiences with Azerbaijan,” he said. Azerbaijani Minister Alekperov said Azerbaijan was currently trying to make reforms that Turkey has already made.