The state of the excellent relations between Turkey and Slovakia constitutes a good basis for further development of our bilateral cooperation in various fields. Significant priority is also being devoted to economic and cultural areas.

The trade volume between Turkey and Slovakia, which has increased ten folds in the course of last few years, surpassed the threshold of a billion US Dollars in 2007 by reaching 1.067.583.000 US Dollars. In 2008 the trade volume has further increased and amounted to 1.273.289.000 (Exports of Turkey towards Slovakia being 422,312.000 US Dollars.)

As a matter of fact, neither the Turkish side, nor the Slovak authorities regard this volume as sufficient when taking into account the current economic potentials of both countries. Some information about Turkey's economic success, its high growth rate and increasing trade volume is given above. Slovakia, due mostly to the large scale foreign investments in the automotive and electronics sectors, also enjoys a very high level of export potential. That is why we believe that it is essential to find common ground and incentives to enhance the ever existing cooperation among our entrepreneurs in order to further boost our bilateral trade, and we are working in that direction. We also attach great importance to the realisation of reciprocal investments in both countries with regards the improvement and deepening of cooperation in the field of economy.

We observe with pleasure the increase in the number of Slovak tourists visiting Turkey. The number of Slovak tourists visiting Turkey reached 54.000 in 2007 and this trend will surely continue.

We geared efforts to encourage Turkish tourists to explore the beauties of Slovakia as well. Certainly, these interactions will drive our two nations much closer.

We expect the steady continuation of development of our relations in all areas of mutual interest in the future. The high growth rate of both countries as well as their unique geo-strategic locations will continue to be the driving reasons for furthering political and economic cooperation between Turkey and Slovakia.