Trade between Bulgaria and Turkey has grown strongly in recent years and would reach $10 billion annually within several years, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a forum attended by 240 Bulgarian and Turkish business people in Sofia on March 27 2008.

The forum was part of the events scheduled for Erdogan's two-day visit to the country, the Bulgarian Cabinet's press service said in a statement.

The dynamics of the political and economic relations between Bulgaria and Turkey over the past two years is very visible, Bulgarian Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev said at the opening of the forum, as proven by the fact that each year trade between the two countries grows by $1 billion.

Stanishev added he was confident that the positive dynamics will stay the same in the future and that the increase in trade over the next several years will continue at the same pace. The phenomenon was a logical conclusion of the internal economic reforms that were being carried out in Bulgaria and Turkey, and the economic growth of the two countries.

Stanishev also said that the Bulgarian and Turkish governments would aim at helping and facilitating to a maximum extent the trade, economic contacts and partnerships between companies from the two countries.

The Bulgarian Prime Minister described the talks he held with his Turkish counterpart earlier in the day as very constructive. "I am sure they will give a new stimulus to the relations between the governments of the two states," he said in the statement.

Erdogan, on his part, also thanked Bulgaria for its constant support of Turkey's European Union bid and expressed his hope it will remain unaltered for the future.