The call was made as a group of nine Slovenian honorary consuls to Turkey and as many Turkish businessmen from various industries and regions met officials in Ljubljana while on a visit to the country.

Minister of Economic Development and Technology Zdravko Počivalšek labelled Turkey, Europe's sixth biggest economy, as "a large and friendly country".

Slovenia designated Turkey as a priority market in the action plan designed to help Slovenian business get into new markets.

Počivalšek sees the potential for the countries to increase trade, investment and in tourism. Slovenia would also like to have a special memorandum signed to boost links between SMEs.

The minister especially underscored opportunities in tourism, to increase the flow of visitors, investment, also in light of the ongoing privatisation in Slovenia, and exchange of expertise.

Turkish consuls and businessmen learned details about the ongoing privatisations of state-owned enterprises from Finance Ministry State Secretary Metod Dragonja.

Počivalšek also raised the opportunity of joint forays into third markets, referring to "know-how and high technologies" Slovenian companies could offer.

Turkish Ambassador Serra Kaleli too pointed to the untapped potential. "Cooperation has not yet reached the level of economic potential," she said, noting the countries had a joint economic commission.

The ambassador encouraged Turkish business officials to join the investment projects in Slovenia, saying they stood to gain a lot that way.

Merchandise trade between the countries topped EUR 0.5bn last year. "This is the highest level yet, but still far below the potential," the Foreign Ministry's economic diplomacy official Stanislav Raščan said.

This is even more true of foreign direct investment, he said, considering Turkey's FDI in Slovenia was below EUR 2m in 2013, while Slovenian companies had investment worth EUR 12m in Turkey.

As the most promising sectors Raščan identified construction, energy, tourism, logistics, renewbles, IT, telecommunications, environment protection and farming and food industry.

He cited the cooperation in the construction of a hydro plant on the Morača river in Montenegro as a project that could soon become a model example of the countries' joint foray into third markets.

The conference was organised by the SPIRIT agency for the promotion of investment, tourism and enterprise in cooperation with the ministries of economic development and foreign affairs.

After the meeting Slovenian business officials were given an opportunity for head-to-head meetings with members of the visiting Turkish delegation, who own a combined assets in excess of EUR 7bn between them.