ANKARA, October 11. /TASS/. Turkey and Russia plan to boost their trade to $100 billion a year, Turkey’s Minister of Economy Nihat Zeybekci said on Tuesday.

"Our goal is to bring bilateral trade up to 100 billion dollars a year. We can reach it in several years," he told Haberturk television channel.

According to the minister, issues of trade and economic relations between the two countries are in focus of a session on the Russian-Turkish intergovernmental commission underway in Istanbul on October 10-12.

Zeybekci told TASS earlier that the two countries will be able to regain former dynamics of trade and economic cooperation when Russia lifts its ban on Turkish imports.

He said that Russia is an important country for Turkey as they are linked by serious relations in the economic sphere. In his words, the use of national currencies might help boost bilateral trade.

According to the Turkish ministry of economy, trade between the two countries stood at $24 billion in 2015 and at $11.2 billion - in the first eight months of 2016.

Russia imposed trade restrictions on Turkey following an incident with a Russian warplane that was downed by the Turkish air force in Syria on November 24, 2015. Thus, Russia banned imports of Turkish vegetables and fruits and restricted operation of Turkish companies.