On January 7, Erdogan, Premier of Turkey, met with Chen Deming, Minister of Commerce of China who was visiting Turkey in Ankara.

Chen firstly conveyed the greetings from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao to Erdogan. And Erdogan thanked for it and let Chen convey his greetings to Wen.

Erdogan expressed his welcome for the economic and trade delegation and the promotion delegation of trade and investment of Chinese government to visit Turkey. He believed that this visit would be beneficial for mutual understanding and cooperation. He also said that Turkey, as an important emerging economic entity, was the transport hub of Asia and Europe, and China made great achievements in developing its economy rapidly and coping with the financial crisis. So the economic cooperation of the two countries was promising. At present, China-Turkey trade developed fast and still had great potential. Enterprises of Turkey were very interested in the cooperation with enterprises of China in the fields of trade, investment, construction of infrastructure, energy etc.

Chen stated that China attached importance to the economic and trade cooperation and friendly relationship with Turkey all the time. And China will constantly promote the balanced development of the bilateral trade, and encourage powerful enterprises to invest in Turkey and participate in the economic construction of Turkey. Meanwhile, Chinese government hoped that the government of Turkey would provide support and concern for the mutual cooperation and promote the joint investment and cooperation with third countries. Chen also said that China and Turkey located in the east and west of the continent of Asia respectively and China was willing to promote the transportation construction between China and Turkey and build a new silk road together with Turkey.

On the same day, Chen also met with Yildirim, Minister of Transportation of Turkey. Both sides agreed that transportation was the important condition to enhance the economic and trade relation so that both sides should make common efforts to further expand the mutual beneficial cooperation in transportation.