Ruhollah Latifi said that of the mentioned figure $7.217 million was the value of automobile export.

According to the official, the destinations for the mentioned products were 12 countries on top of which stood Azerbaijan, followed by China, Spain, Russia, Senegal, Ukraine, Iraq and Turkey.

As previously reported, three major Iranian carmakers, namely Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), SAIPA Group, and Pars Khodro, manufactured 501,635 vehicles during the first seven months of the current year.

The production by the mentioned companies has risen 1.1 percent compared to the previous year’s same seven months in which the output stood at 496,095.

During the said seven months, IKCO manufactured 242,276 vehicles, which was 2.8 percent less than the output in the same time span of the previous year.

SAIPA manufactured 192,628 vehicles in the mentioned period. Production by this automaker rose 2.2 percent in comparison to the previous year’s same time span in which the output stood at 188,490.

Pars Khodro also manufactured 66,731 vehicles in the period under review, 14.5 percent more than the output in the first seven months of the past year.

Iran currently stands in 20th place among the world’s top automobile manufacturers producing 821,060 vehicles by the end of 2019, according to the Organisation Internationale des Constructeurs d’Automobiles (OICA), worldpopulationreview.com has recently reported.

Back in August, Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Seyyed Reza Fatemi Amin said that his ministry has a two-year plan for the auto industry based on which this industry will undergo serious changes and improve significantly.

“We must strengthen competition, improve management and economic mechanisms, and increase production in the auto industry in order to succeed in our plans,” Fatemi Amin said.

“Our plan is to produce 1.6 million vehicles next year (begins in March 2022), which will increase to three million units in [the Iranian calendar year] 1404 (begins in March 2025), and 30 percent of the production, equivalent to about one million units, should be sent to export markets,” he added.

Iran’s major carmakers had manufactured 900,714 vehicles in the previous year (ended on March 20), which was 4.3 percent more than the figure of its preceding year.

During the past year, IKCO manufactured 480,338 vehicles, which was 21.9 percent more than the output in its preceding year, which was 393,812 vehicles.

SAIPA manufactured 317,321 vehicles, with a 12.6-percent fall from 363,379 vehicles manufactured in 1398. And Pars Khodro manufactured 103,055 vehicles in the past year, showing a 2.8-percent drop from the output of its previous year, which was 106,072 vehicles.

Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Ministry’s programs for the current Iranian calendar year show that the manufacturing of 1.2 million cars has been put on the agenda.

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The remarks were made by Hossein Salimi, the vice president of the Iranian Committee of the ECO Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily.

He said the ECO member countries have welcomed Iran’s proposal of manufacturing the new car in a recent meeting of the organization.

Salimi added that the meetings of different ECO committees are currently held virtually due to the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

The novel coronavirus outbreak, which began in Wuhan, China, in December, has expanded to touch nearly every corner of the globe, infecting over 15.97 million and killing more than 643,000.

Commenting on the experience of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the joint production of an automobile, Salimi suggested that ECO members can do the same by taking part in the manufacturing of a new car brand.

The ASEAN is a regional intergovernmental organization comprising ten countries in Southeast Asia, which promotes intergovernmental cooperation and facilitates economic, political, security, military, educational and sociocultural integration among its members and other Asian countries.

Elaborating on how the ECO members each can play a role in the initiative, he said, “For instance, a country can produce the parts and another one can assemble them. Participation by some members can even be in the form of purchasing the manufactured cars.”

According to Salimi, preliminary estimates regarding the required investments and facilities for the annual production of one million automobiles are expected to be made based on a request by the ECO and in coordination with the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“A report of the estimates will be handed over to the ECO.”

The car to be produced by the ECO members is required to be competitive with other brands in international markets, he said, adding, “We are calculating the amount of demand for such a new car model in each member state to be able to meet their needs following the production of the automobile.”

At present, he said, Iran, Turkey as well as Pakistan have the required capabilities and technology for manufacturing automobiles and, along with other members, can cooperate in this enterprise.

Describing as less-than-satisfactory ECO’s efforts to achieve its economic goals and implement its plans, Salimi called on the member states to prioritize collective and long-term interests over the national and short-term ones.

“It will help the organization work better toward its economic targets.”

Despite its long-standing historical background, he added, the ECO has, in practice, failed to accomplish a large number of simple tasks due to the differences among its members.

The ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization, encompassing countries from Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia, Middle East and South Asia with more than 460 million inhabitants, according to eco.int.

Covering an area of over eight million square kilometers, it connects Russia to the Persian Gulf and China to Europe. The overall objective of the organization is the sustainable economic development of its member states and the region as a whole.

Established as Regional Cooperation for Development (RCD) in 1964 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, the organization was rechristened as ECO in 1985.

In 1992 and in the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Afghanistan and six former Soviet republics, namely, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan joined the organization, forming one of the biggest regional blocs in Asia and beyond with 10 members.

Expounding on the differences among the ECO members, Salimi said for instance, many years ago, it was proposed that the members eliminate visa requirements among their nationals, in a move similar to what has been done in the Schengen Area, enabling them to easily travel to member countries.

“Each time, however, one or two members disagreed with the proposal. For an ECO visa sticker plan to be carried out successfully, all members must arrive at a consensus.”

He added the Economic Cooperation Organization Trade Agreement (ECOTA) is another project that has been suspended due to a disagreement among the members.

“To achieve their goals, particularly, in the field of trade, the ECO members placed implementation of the ECOTA plan on their agenda having studied similar experiences by other international organizations. The agreement will be a significant step toward facilitating trade among the members and promotion of free trade in the region. The ECOTA was signed in July 2003 in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.”

Salimi said the agreement is aimed at unifying tariffs on trade among the ECO members, regretting that the plan was suspended as a number of member states, which are exporters of certain products, have voiced disagreement with the reduction of tariffs.

“Of course, it is possible to abolish tariffs on some products and lower them on other goods.”

This, he explained, comes as the signatories to North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – a deal signed by Canada, Mexico and the US, creating a trilateral trade bloc in North America – managed to arrive at a consensus about the treaty despite their differences.

He stressed that the ECO members that are all Muslim countries should basically be able to come to an agreement on different issues with greater ease.

NAFTA came into force in January 1994.  It facilitates entry by the nationals of the signatories into each other’s countries for trade exchanges, provision of services and investments.

Also commenting on the reasons for the differences among the ECO members, Salimi said, “I am one of the oldest people in the ECO having worked at the organization for over two decades. However, throughout all these years, the members have never arrived at an agreement over an issue.”

He said that some of the members have been following certain economic patterns since a long time ago and have their own economic attitudes and principles, which are different from other members.

“This comes as the ECO members have considerable capacities in different fields, such as in terms of population and natural resources, which can be used to increase the organization’s role in political and, particularly, economic international relations.”

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