ISTANBUL: Trkiye aims to increase its trade volume with Saudi Arabia to $30 billion in the medium term, Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz said Thursday at the Trkiye-Saudi Arabia Investment and Business Forum's gala dinner in Istanbul. Yilmaz said the trade volume between the countries reached $6.8 billion in 2023, while Saudi firms have made an investment of $2 billion in Trkiye so far. "We consider that it is a realistic goal to increase our trade volume in a balanced and rapid way to more than $10 billion in the short term," he said. "We believe investments can increase easily through more frequent events that can bring together our countries' business worlds," he added.? Yilmaz said Trkiye is at the forefront as a region for supply and investment in the post-pandemic period. "Trkiye provides opportunities for investors in technology, defense, renewable energy, petrochemicals, finance, tourism and housing as part of international investments," he said. "Saudi Arabia's sectors that address investors includ e chemicals, machinery, food and drink processing, automotive, aviation, medicine and biotech, medical equipment and supplies, military industry, renewable energy, construction materials and mining sub-sectors," he added. About his meeting with Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed Al Khateeb, Yilmaz said: 'While we expressed our satisfaction that the number of tourists coming to Trkiye from Saudi Arabia increased by 70% in 2023, reaching approximately 830,000, we evaluated the importance of the number of our citizens visiting Saudi Arabia from Trkiye increasing more than 3.5 times and reaching 670,000 in 2023.' 'We also expressed our consensus that the tourism potential between Saudi Arabia and Trkiye should be evaluated more,' he added. 'The contribution of the close and strong political dialogue between the leaders of the two countries to our economic cooperation will further strengthen our future cooperation efforts,' Yilmaz said. 'While Trkiye continues to offer important opportunities for Saudi Arabian inves tors, Saudi Arabia will continue to offer important investment environments for our Turkish entrepreneurs,' he added. Source: Anadolu Agency