Bulgaria and Turkey will enhance cooperation in the spheres of energy, customs, trade and agriculture, Ministers decided at a meeting today.

The decision is a result of the meeting of the Bulgarian Turkish Committee for economic and technical cooperation. Co-chairmen of the committee are the Minister of economy and energy Roumen Ovcharov and the State Minister of Turkey Kurshat Tuzmen.

The Bulgarian-Turkish meeting was held on 24 and 25 January 2007.

The Ministers announced that in 2006 the trade between the two countries amounted to EUR 2.3 bln and this year it is expected to reach EUR 3 bln.

At the same time in order to facilitate the busy traffic at the cross border checkpoints between Bulgaria and Turkey both parties have agreed on providing for quicker border procedures, promotion of the cross-border point Lessoco Hamzapeil and for improvements in the technical infrastructure of cross-border checkpoints Kapakule-Kapitan Andreevo and Malko Tarnovo-Derekoi.

Bulgaria and Turkey have declared their support for the construction of the pipeline NABUKO – one of the biggest projects on supplying natural gas to Europe.