TEHRAN (Iran News) – Tehran, Dushanbe Explore Ways to Boost Economic Ties. In a webinar which was held by Tehran Chamber of Commerce last week, Iran and Tajikistan explored ways to expand their economic relations especially between their private sectors.
The participants in this virtual meeting reviewed opportunities for cooperation and expansion of economic cooperation especially between the private sectors of Iran and Tajikistan.
Tajikistan Ambassador to Tehran and Iran’s Ambassador to Tajikistan were also present in this webinar wherein more than 150 economic activists involved in.
At the beginning of the webinar, head of international affairs of Tehran Chamber of Commerce pointed to the abundant commonalities between the two countries especially in their language, religion and history and called Tajikistan as the closest country to Iran but he reiterated that despite such commonalities, the volume of economic relations between the two states have not grown as it is expected.
Hessamuddin Hallaj then said while the two countries are on the eve of the 30th anniversary of restoring diplomatic relations, Tehran Chamber of Commerce decided to hold this webinar to boost the knowledge of economic activists regarding the common trade capacities and reviewing the opportunities for cooperation.
He went on to say that unfortunately the total trade volume of the two states regardless of their trade via the third party countries is around $25m and the goal behind such meetings and events is to make the most of this opportunity for paving the ground for economic activists and tradesmen of both states.
Then Seyedeh Fatemeh Moqimi, a member of presiding board of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, described Tajikistan a country with capacity to become a big economic trade partner of Iran in the Central Asia and by referring to the close cultural and historical bonds of the two states, she said Tajikistan can have access to free waters via Iran’s southern ports while Iran’s access to Europe via Tajikistan is an ideal opportunity for improving Iran’s trade and economy.
She then pointed to Iran’s experience in the fields of oil, gas and electricity, and said Iran and Tajikistan have also high capacity for cooperation in the food industries, metals and tourism beside expansion of cooperation in the fields of implementing projects in oil, electricity and dam construction.
Meanwhile Tajikistan Ambassador to Tehran Nizomiddin Zohidi, for his part, pointed to 85 percent decline in the bilateral trade in recent years, adding that holding such virtual events, presence of economic activists in the exhibitions being held in both states and dispatch of trade exhibition for getting more familiar with capacities for trade cooperation are of the joint actions by Iran and Tajikistan for improving the level of economic ties.
He then pointed to the readiness of Iran and Tajikistan for signing several MoUs and announced signing of MoU on cooperation between Tehran Stock Exchange and Tajikistan’s Central Asia Stock.
Zohidi then reiterated that so far 170 MoUs and documents on cooperation have been signed between Iran and Tajikistan, noting that the legal grounds are very important for bilateral cooperation in trade and economy.
