LAHORE: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday vowed to further strengthen the bilateral, trade, cultural, political and economic relations.

They stressed the need that both sides should work for joint ventures and investment in diversified sectors of economy including energy, transport, communication, infrastructure, textile, automobile, agriculture, industry, food processing, dairy development, information technology and oil and gas among others.

Both the premiers expressed these views at a function organised by Pak-Turk Business Forum at a local hotel.

Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Federal Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Caglayan and Turkish Minister for Transport were prominent among other ministers, parliamentarians, business tycoons from both Pakistan and Turkey.

On this occasion, both the sides also inked three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) between Punjab Industrial Department and Turkey Cooperation Agency; Pakistan Railways and Turkish Logistics Organisation; Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and Turkish Standard Institution.

In his address, PM Erdogan thanked PM Sharif and the Pakistani nation for according them a very warm welcome.

He said that he felt Lahore as his second home, adding that Pakistanis and Turkish people were enjoying historic brotherly relations and “I am proud of this relationship.”

The Turkish premier also paid rich tributes to present political and democratic government for taking Pak-Turk relations to a new era.

“We have made commitment to further enhance the bilateral trade and economic relations during Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's recent visit to Istanbul and our current visit is also part of that,” he maintained.

Erdogan told the participants that he had brought along representatives of 39 Turkish companies as well as huge trade delegation and added that they came to Pakistan to explore investment opportunities here.

He mentioned that current trade volume between Pakistan and Turkey hovers around $83 million, which did not manifest the actual trade potential existed between the two countries.