Turkey and Tatarstan can raise their bilateral trade to over $1 billion, Ruhsar Pekcan, the Turkish trade minister said Thursday.

Their bilateral trade was $920 million in 2012, which dropped to $314 million in 2018, the minister told the Turkey-Tatarstan Business Forum, hosted by Turkey's Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK) in Istanbul.

Pekcan said Turkish companies have made a large amount of investment in Tatarstan.

Turkey also supports Tatar companies to invest in Turkey, she added.

"We require petrochemical investments, and we have project-based support," the minister noted.

She added: "Turkish contractors have $1.7 billion investment in Tatarstan and we want to see our contractors in more projects."

Rustam Minnihanov, the president of Tatarstan, stressed the two countries had taken significant steps for easing trade, investments and new projects.

Saying that Tatarstan was the most important industrial area of Russia, he added: "We are ready to cooperate with Turkey in energy, information technologies, construction, and tourism fields."

Within the scope of the business forum, several cooperation agreements were signed between the two countries.