The Turkish state minister for foreign trade will travel to Libya on Tuesday, his office said on Monday.

Turkey's State Minister Zafer Caglayan will leave for Libya together with representatives of Turkish contracting companies on Tuesday.

Caglayan will meet Libyan Prime Minister Ali al-Baghdadi al-Mahmudi and have talks with Libyan ministers.

A Turkish-Libyan contracting business forum will take place on the sidelines of Caglayan's visit to Libya. Participants will discuss new contracting projects Libya is planning to fulfil in coming days.

Commercial relations between Turkey and Libya have been on the rise in the recent five years. Libya was the third biggest trade partner of Turkey in the continent of Africa in 2008, whereas the two countries had a foreign trade volume of 1.4 billion USD in that year.

In 2009, Turkey's exports to Libya were up to 1.8 billion USD and the trade volume was over 2 billion USD between the two countries.

Turkish companies have undertaken significant contracting projects in Libya in recent years. The projects Turkish firms have undertaken in Libya in the recent three years were over 11 billion USD.