Tehran, Ankara Keen to Bolster Economic Relation

IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

TEHRAN – Iran’s Ambassador to Turkey Mr. Mohammad Farazmand has called for an all-out multilateral relation between Iran and Turkey and urged both states to enhance their economic cooperation.

Speaking at Iran-Turkey Business Form which was held in Istanbul by DEIK, Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board (DEIK), Mr. Farazmand pointed to the amicable relation between businesspersons of Iran and Turkey in the past five decades and called it considerable.

He added that border between Iran and Turkey is one of the safest borders and it is entitled to be named “Borders of Friendship.” He then pointed to some economic potentials, adding that to exploit those potentials, expansion of multilateral cooperation between Iran and Turkey as well as a third party country is one solution.

Farazmand reiterated that economic activists of both states are capable to carry out successful projects together in countries like Iraq.

Meanwhile Chairman of the Turkey-Iran Business Council Ümit Kiler, for his part, underlined that Turkey is one of the biggest economies in the region and expressed hope that hurdles in way of bilateral cooperation between Iran and Turkey would be removed He added that holding forum and meeting will pave the ground for developing talks for boosting all-out cooperation.

Head of Iran’s trade delegation in the forum Mr. Gholam-Hossein Jamili pointed to some valuable experiences between Iranians and Turks in the trade in the past, adding that both countries should not be negligent about bilateral cooperation.

He went on to say that fortunately today the relation between both states is good in economic, cultural, political and other fields and they are moving forward strongly.

Jamili noted that although all know that recent sanctions have led to the fall in trade between Iran and Turkey but both parties should work to resolve it.

He then pointed to problem in the banking relation and called for finding a solution to resolve it in order to save bilateral trade from damage.

He said that despite ups and downs, the trade volume of both countries has remained around $10b in recent years.

Jamili went on to say that the trade volume between Iran and Turkey in three quarters of 2019 has stood at $5.5b and it is expected the total trade volume to fall by 24.5 percent this year comparing to 2018.

Jamili who is a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce called for finding a way to solve financial transfer as well as tariff issue which has become major problems for traders.

He noted that soon the number of goods on the preferential tariff list will increase and it can be a ground for growth in economic cooperation between both states.

He went on to say that producing joint production and exporting it to the regional states can be a good way for penetration of both countries into the third party country’s market.

Jamili added that Turkey is Iran’s fourth trade partner and both countries should work on joint investment and entry of Turkey for investment in Iran’s free zones.

He said Iran and Turkey can have joint cooperation in petrochemical, apparel, electricity production, energy  and plastics industry.