The trade volume between Turkey and the Czech Republic reached $3.3 billion last year, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said, adding Turkey aims to increase it to $5 billion by 2017. Speaking during the protocol ceremony of the sixth Term Meeting of the Joint Economic Commission (KEK) between Turkey and the Czech Republic, Babacan said the Czech Republic is a strong supporter of Turkey's accession to the EU. "Relations between the two countries are good," he added. "There are many Czech companies in Turkey and 37 Turkish firms operate in the Czech Republic. Turkish and Czech companies sign more collaboration agreements to develop business in third world countries," Babacan stressed. He said energy is one of the important fields of collaboration along with transportation, tourism, agriculture, health, education, environment and other industrial sectors. Jan Mladek, the Industry and Trade Minister of the Czech Republic said the meeting was held to improve collaboration and to accelerate bilateral relations between the two countries. Mladek said the ministry fully supports trade activities with Turkey, and wants to enrich the list of trade products. He recalled that the trade volume between Turkey and the Czech Republic has tripled in the last 10 years. "We will develop bilateral relations with Turkey in the following years and put more focus on energy and transportation infrastructure," Mladek continued. Czech companies are ready to join the tender on the modernization of power plants. "Our collaboration in the energy industry includes nuclear and sustainable energy resources, which requires new innovative and high-added-value technologies," he said. Mladek said the Czech Republic is open for collaborations in health, machine, defense, automotive, food and petro-chemistry industries.