President Abdurrahman Kaan hosted Lesotho Foreign Affairs Minister Lesego Makgothi in Headquarters under the coordinator ship of MUSIAD International Relations and Foreign Trade Commission.
President Abdurrahman Kaan hosted Lesotho Foreign Affairs Minister Lesage Makgothi in Headquarters on March 23rd Friday under the coordinator ship of MUSIAD International Relations and Foreign Trade Commission.
President of MUSIAD Abdurrahman Kaan, President of International Relations and Foreign Trade Commission Zeki Güvercin, Commission Member Salih Levent Kaçar, Deputy Secretary General Emrullah Büyükaslan and Foreign Relations Coordinator Özlem Bacak participated in the meeting.
Door to South Africa
Making statements in the meeting, Minister Makgothi said Lesotho should not be considered as only a country, it was a door to markets such as South Africa and Switzerland.
Mentioning that there was a small airline in Lesotho, Makgothi said that Turkish Airlines could use this airport as a transfer point, Lesotho had a huge tourism potential but it didn’t get attention because of lack of advertisement. Underlining that they place an importance to real estate and construction sectors, Makgothi gave information about the hospital project they are planning to carry out.
Makgothi mentioned that they met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu recently and added, “Developing Turkey-Lesotho relations is underlined in the meeting. Also a “Memorandum of Understanding” is signed between ministries for political consultations and diplomat education.” Indicating that Turkish Ministry of Economy was also planning a tour to Lesotho, Makgothi mentioned that Lesotho was a big advantage since it had Free Trade Agreement with all SADEC member countries.
Talking about the need of hotel investments in their country, Makgothi said a bigger Convention Center had to be built for African Union Meetings.
A Big Opportunity for Agriculture and Energy Industries
On Agriculture and energy industries, Minister Makgothi; “We use traditional methods rather than modern applications in Agriculture industry. We import most of our products from South Africa. We want to collaborate with Turkey on home production.
South Africa also meets 60% of our energy needs. Therefore, we pay attention to energy investments. Diamond mine revenues constitute 80% of the total revenues of our country.” Talking in the meeting, President Abdurrahman Kaan underlined that Turkey had enough experience and source in construction, energy and agriculture industries. Kaan completed his speech by adding they would evaluate the planned projects and would be pleased to do it.