ISTANBUL (A.A) - Istanbul Shipyard will manufacture five riverpatrolling boats for Romanian Border Police.Istanbul Shipyard, active in Tuzla, Istanbul, as a subsidiary of the SNRHolding, said the boats would be delivered within this year.In a written statement the shipyard said it earlier completed themodernization of four SAR boats belonging to the Turkish Coast Guard.The 16.5 meter boats, which will be made up of aluminium, has the capacityto reach 50/kım hour speed.The boats have the capability of fulfilling missions like observation,controlling, intervention and arrest.The boats are equipped with high technology navigators and transceiverdevices as well as various surveillance systems.(AY-CE)

BUDAPEST (A.A) - 15 Turkish tourism agencies will attend the33rd International Budapest Tourism Fair.Turkey, together with India, is the guest country of the fair which will beheld between March 4 and 7 at Hungexpo Fair Center.Turkish Ambassador in Budapest Oya Tuzcuoglu said that the perfect relationsbetween Turkey and Hungary should be spread to tourism sector too.Turkey hosted 85,000 Hungarian tourists in 2009.Nearly 700 tourism agencies from 35 countries will attend the fair.(GC-CE)

TAHRAN/ANKARA (A.A) - Turkish Industry and Trade Minister NihatErgun said Tuesday that the current intra-trade volume among the D-8 did notreflect the true trade potential.Addressing the Industry Ministers meeting of the D-8 countries in Tehran,Ergun said Turkey did not only care about its trade volume with D-8 members, butalso cared about the trade volume among other D-8 members.Ergun emphasized that the wind of change in the 21st century brought downcustom barriers, redefined economic and political boundaries, and forced staticstructures to constantly change and made it a must for countries to seek dynamicpolicies. He said countries which realised these facts began to open theirnational economies to the world, diversified their products and followed policiestrying to gain the upper hand in the global competition.Ergun said promoting competitiveness was not a task members could undertakealone noting that it required economic cooperation and regional economicalliances. He said the government embraced such a perspective towards the D-8which represented a wide hinterland with a population of one billion, adding thatthey attached great importance to enhancing their relations with D-8 members.He said economic development would bring higher representation for D-8 inpolitical platforms and greater participation in global decision makingmechanisms.Ergun said Turkey's trade volume with D-8 countries rose from USD 2.9billion to USD 13 billion under the Justice and Development Party rule. He saidconsidering the true potential of the D-8 this volume was not enough.Ergun pointed out that D-8 countries ranked somewhere between the 23rd and137th place, out of 183 countries, in the World Bank's"Doing Business"2010report, a ranking of convenience of countries for making business. He said thiswas not satisfactory for any of the D-8 members.He said this report alone proved that G-8 countries had a long way to go inpromoting their competitiveness, enhancing their investment environment, andcreating welfare for their peoples.He said, he believed the Tehran declaration which will be adopted at theconclusion of the meeting would further promote the cooperation among thecountries, and help develop constructive dialogue especially in the field ofindustry.(OZG-CE)

ISTANBUL (A.A) - Turkey and Lithuania decided to establish ajoint chamber of commerce.A protocol was signed by the Independent Industrialists'&Businessmen'sAssociation (MUSIAD) and the Confederation of Lithuanian Industrialists.The decision was made during a visit by members of the MUSIAD to Lithuania,Latvia and Estonia with the aim of boosting trade volumes with these threecountries.Turkey-Lithuania trade volume was 110.9 million USD in the first nine monthsof 2009, with a decrease of 37.4 percent from 177.2 million USD in the sameperiod 2008. Turkey and Lithuania signed an agreement to encourage investmentsmutually in 1994 and another agreement to prevent double taxation in 1998.(UK-CE)

ANKARA (A.A) - World's third largest plant genetic resourcebank will be opened in Ankara, Turkey on Tuesday.The bank has a resource capacity of 250,000 species; and it will preservenot only plant resources but also genes of bacteria and fungi which are used inagricultural production.The gene bank was started to be constructed on July 30, 2009 in the campusof Agriculture&Rural Affairs Ministry in Yenimahalle district, and completedonly with Turkish finance for two million TL. (1 USD = 1.54 TL)At least 25 experts will work in the bank.The bank will preserve both plant genetic resources in Turkey and othergenetic resources which will be obtained from foreign countries throughinternational agreements.Prof. Hayri Duman, dean of Faculty of Science&Letters of Gazi University,said that plant genetic resources banks were very important to transfer the plantdiversity to the next generations.He noted that hybrid species, which were brought from foreign countries,caused Turkish seeds to get extinct, adding that local gene resources should bepreserved for the future.Over 500 habitat, 12,054 plant species (3,905 of which are endemic), over400 bird, more than 500 fish, over 100,000 reptile and over 160,000 invertebratespecies are registered in Turkey.Only 2,400 of 12,000 plant species are endemic in Europe, while this numberis 3,905 in Turkey.300,000 resources are under protection in the plant genetic bank in China,and 280,000 in the U.S.There are 10,000 plant resources in the gene bank which was previouslyestablished in Ankara and 50,000 plant resources in the gene bank in the westernprovince of Izmir. These resources will be transferred to the new bank in Ankara.Scientists think there are 300,000-500,000 plant species in the world.(GC-CE)

LEFKOSA (A.A) - President Mehmet Ali Talat of the TurkishRepublic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) said on Tuesday that he would run in thepresidential elections by the end of this week.Replying to a question, Talat said he was thinking of announcing hiscandidacy on Saturday however did not set a definite date.Prime Minister Dervis Eroglu, leader of the National Unity Party (UBP),earlier officially announced that he would run in the election.The presidential election will be held in the TRNC on April 18.TRNC Supreme Electoral Board announced a timetable for the upcomingelection.Accordingly, the election process will begin on February 24.Political parties will be given time till March 9 to name their candidates.The deadline for candidates to run in the election is set as March 12. The Boardwill officially announce the list of candidates on March 22.The presidential election will be held on April 18. If any candidate cannotreach the required threshold of 50 percent in the first round, the second roundof the election will be held on April 25 between the two candidates who receivedthe highest number of votes in the first round.Rauf Denktas was the first president of the TRNC which was established in1983. He remained at office from 1983 to 2005. He was replaced by Mehmet AliTalat during the 2005 election.(AY-CE)