Ukrainian official says Turkey determined to invest in Crimea

Simferopol - Anatoliy Mohyliov, the prime minister of Crimea, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed strategic avenues of business cooperation at a meeting on the sidelines of the 9th Yalta Annual Meeting on Friday.

"The prime minister of Turkey expressed his great interest in cooperation with Crimea and instructed his government to hold active negotiations on drawing investment in Crimea and establish and develop closer business contacts," the Crimean information policy directorate quoted Mohyliov as saying following the meeting.

In particular, the two discussed investment in the Crimean agricultural and industrial sectors and the provision of grants to Crimea for supporting returnees.

Mohyliov said a delegation of Turkish specialists worked in Crimea the previous week to explore possibilities for running investment projects on building industrial parks there.

"The establishment of such parks in Crimea is among promising areas of bilateral cooperation. We discussed this at our meeting in Yalta," he said.

The construction of industrial parks in Crimea should provide an impetus to the region's economic development, Mohyliov said. Crimea and Turkey have a huge potential for the development of bilateral mutually advantageous cooperation, he added.

"We possess opportunities for more intensive cooperation in various fields, and I am sure its dynamics will be growing," he said.