TEHRAN (Iran News) – In a webinar which was held with presence of heads of chambers of commerce and ambassadors of Iran and Kyrgyzstan and economic activists of the two countries, the chambers of commerce of Iran and Kyrgyzstan signed a MoU to form a joint commercial committee for expansion of bilateral economic activities.
In the webinar, Head of International Affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce Mr. Mohammad Reza Karbasi pointed to the importance of signing this MoU and said that although membership in the ECO, EAEU and SCO can be an advantage for developing economic cooperation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan in different fields, there are broad bilateral capacities for cooperation in different fields of trade, services and technical and engineering services and the interest of Iranian economic activists for cooperation with Kyrgyzstan is on the rise.
Then Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce Gholam-Hossein Shafei expressed his satisfaction that after years of waiting the opportunity was provided for signing the MoU for forming the joint commercial committees between the chambers of commerce of the two countries in the form of forum of Economic Day of Kyrgyzstan.
He added that presence of ambassadors of the two countries in this meeting indicates the support of statesmen from the private sectors and tireless efforts of senior officials of the two countries for removal of the existing hurdles and setting the basis of relations based on strong and trustable principles.
Shafei said existence of potential and active grounds for trade, industrial and investment cooperation have created the reasons for closeness and cooperation of the two countries more than ever. He added that formation of the joint commercial committee and holding such forums can have constructive and positive effects like introducing trade opportunities and improving the level of trade and economic ties between the two states.
He deplored that major parts of potentials of the two countries for cooperation have not yet been activated, adding that the trade volume of Iran and Kyrgyzstan was only $18m in 2020 and the figure accounts only for 0.03% of Kyrgyzstan’s total foreign trade and it signals failure in using the existing potentials.
Shafei announced readiness of Iran Chamber of Commerce for boosting and offering practical support for trade exchanges with Kyrgyzstan in different fields like transportation, tourism, health tourism, food industries, agriculture, petchems, mines, auto-making, environment, new technologies, technical and engineering services and construction.
He went on to say that restoring banking relations, increasing the number of direct flights and direct and active talks for removing obstacles for transportation are of the major factors which can facilitate bilateral trade relation between Iran and Kyrgyzstan.
Then Karbasi, for his part, said that there are good capacities for cooperation and the two countries can boost their bilateral trade to over one billion dollars in two or three years period but it needs support of the Kyrgyz statesmen from Iranian economic activists and engineering companies and establishment of this committee can help both countries to boost their bilateral trade to the $1b mark.
