iran foreign trades Archives - Iran News Daily

New Iranian Border Crossing with Afghanistan to Ease trade

reporter 1222 — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 05:27:39 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – A new border crossing is due to be established along the Iranian border with Afghanistan to ease trade between the two neighboring countries, an official said.

Deputy Governor General of Khorasan Razavi Province Ali Rasoulian said that Shamtigh border crossing is the place where Khaf-Herat railway is going to pass into Afghanistan, reported Fars News Agency.

“The new border crossing is under study,” Rasoulian said, adding that once inaugurated, it will have many economic advantages for the province.

He said the opening the project will be within the next two months.

“The new railway not only will decrease the transit costs but will help facilitate the commuting of trucks which have to line up at Dogharoon border,” the official said.

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Envoy: Bangladesh, Iran to Ease Connectivity to Diversify Trade

reporter 1222 — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 05:28:49 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Bangladesh and Iran are working on easier connectivity between the two countries to diversify their bilateral trade.

This was announced by Bangladesh’s Ambassador to Tehran AFM Gousal Azam Sarker in an exclusive interview with Iran Daily.

He said cooperation in the field of facilitating connectivity between the two Islamic countries is being promoted both in bilateral and multilateral frameworks, such the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, where connectivity, transportation and tourism are important areas.

The ambassador also said the relations between Bangladesh and Iran cover all sectors and areas of cooperation.

“We are in cooperation bilaterally and internationally. Bilaterally, we are collaborating in the sectors of trade, investment, education, sports, culture, tourism and even media as well as in the areas of connectivity and communication. Internationally, we cooperate within regional and international frameworks.”

Expressing dissatisfaction with the current level of trade between the two countries, he said Bangladesh and Iran have great potentials.

The ambassador added that in the area of education, Tehran and Dhaka have some levels of cooperation.

“The Iranian government is generously providing our students with support and opportunities for education. Also, a small number of Iranian students are studying in Bangladesh.”

He said the two countries are also cooperating in the field of cinematography.

Commenting on the 45th National Mourning Day of Bangladesh (commemorated on August 15, 2020 by Bangladesh in different parts of the world), the ambassador said, “On this day, we lost our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.”

Commemorated annually on August 15, the National Mourning Day of Bangladesh marks the the brutal assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975.

The ambassador added Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led Bangladesh to independence and freedom in 1971 by uniting the nation.

“Under our Father of the Nation in the independent state of Bangladesh, we established bilateral relations with most of the countries and also with Iran.”

He said the historical background of ties and traditional bonds between Bangladesh and Iran and the peoples of the two countries goes back to centuries.

“The two countries and their peoples have been interacting and partnering with each other for centuries. We have common cultural roots. Persian language used to be our court language for centuries. Even until the late 19th century, Persian continued to be used for official purposes in Bangladesh and as a formal language of the country and administration.

We still have nearly 6,000 to 7,000 words in common which we use in our daily life. Islam was another important connection between the two peoples, which was propagated in our part of the world in the middle ages.”

He said in the 19^th century, when modern Bengali literature was developed, many poets in Bangladesh wrote under the influence of the Iranian culture and literature.

Over the past years relations between the two countries were expanded, the ambassador added, noting that Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has visited Iran two times and attended international summits here.

Likewise, in 1995, the-then Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani visited Bangladesh, he said.

“There have been many important ministerial- and political-level visits that have helped bring us closer. We also work in close cooperation in the international arena. Both countries continue to support each other in [international] forums and on international issues. We hold similar views on different world problems and issues.”

In addition, he said, Bangladesh and Iran have signed many important bilateral agreements and MoUs with each other.

“We also have important mechanisms of dialogue and discussion. We hold joint economic commission meetings to discuss cooperation and have bilateral political dialogues and discussions. We have a mechanism of foreign office consultations as well as agreements in the areas of culture and education.”

The two countries are keen on expanding and deepening their relations and enhancing their cooperation, he noted.

The ambassador described Iran as a brotherly country, saying, “We are working with our friends in Iran and the country’s government in different sectors and areas. Our private sectors and NGOs are also cooperating with each other and open to continuing their collaborations.”

The two countries seek to expand their relations in the field of investment as well, he stressed.

Azam Sarker added after being appointed as Bangladesh’s ambassador to Iran, he has been working to have close cooperation with related Iranian authorities in the fields of facilitating connectivity and increasing people-to-people contacts.

“We are planning to send a delegation comprising tour operators from Bangladesh to Tehran after the coronavirus situation improves for discussions with their Iranian counterparts and developing tour packages for tourists from both countries.”

Commenting on the translation of an autobiography titled ‘The Unfinished Memories’ by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman into Persian, he said in fact, translating this book into Persian was long overdue.

“Persian is an important international language and Persian speakers and readers know very little about the contribution of our Father of the Nation to our country and nation and also the world.”

Thus, he added, to help Iranian and Persian speakers gain more knowledge about this great leader it is important to publish the Persian translation of this book.

“He was a great leader who gave us freedom and independence. He developed our nation and took it forward. He dreamt of a golden Bangladesh, a developed and a prosperous one.”

The ambassador regretted that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did not have time to finish implementing his ideas and policies and fulfilling his dreams, saying, however, his daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who is running the government, is making relentless efforts to develop the country and realize the unimplemented dream of the Father of the Nation.

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Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan Transit Corridor Opened

reporter 1222 — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 11:10:07 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – The pilot project of the Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan transit corridor became operational under the TIR system with two trucks starting transporting goods from Iran to Afghanistan and finally to Uzbekistan on Monday.

According to IRICA Director of Transit Bureau Mostafa Ayati, following the recent successful opening of the KTAI corridor and the shipment of goods from Shahid Rajaee customs in south Iran to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on 5 August, two transit cargoes from this customs left Dogarun border customs for Afghanistan and then to Uzbekistan on Monday.

“The development of transit corridors through Afghanistan as a short and low-cost route to Central Asian countries has been done via TIR system and with the cooperation of the International Road Transport Union (IRU), and Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), IRICA, and Iran Chamber of Commerce,” he said.

“With the pilot opening of this corridor, it seems that Afghanistan is seriously determined to develop transit in its territory and connect Central Asian countries to southern waters, including the ports of the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman (Chabahar),” he added.

“The new Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan corridor, as a new short and low-cost route, can play an effective role in developing trade and regional cooperation, and will lead to stable peace and security in Afghanistan,” Ayati said.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is the most economical route for the transit of goods from Central Asian countries due to short access to open waters,” the official said, “The development of new routes, including the Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan corridor, will end in the improvement of faster transportation of cargoes and reduction of costs.”

“In fact, this route, along with the Turkmenistan route, helps to promote transportation, transit, and trade in the Ecoregion,” he added.

Back in late July, Iran sent two cargoes from Shahid Rajaee Port in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas to Kyrgyzstan through Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran (KTAI) corridor.

As Ayati informed at the time, the KTAI Corridor is established as a shortcut for transitting goods from Iran’s southern ports to Central Asian countries including Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

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Iran Urges Need to Boost Cooperation with Iraq

reporter 1222 — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 05:11:11 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Hassan Rouhani of Iran in a telephone conversation with his counterpart in Iraq, Barham Salih on July 31 stressed the need to boost Tehran-Baghdad relations and cooperation as well as speeding up the implementation of previously signed agreements.

Congratulating his Iraqi counterpart on the occasion of Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice), President Rouhani referred to the long history of bilateral relations between the two neighboring states and hoped that the two nations will have more interactions after the coronavirus pandemic is controlled, IRNA reported.

President Rouhani referred to the recent visit by Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi to Iran as a positive step and an opportunity to review issues of mutual interest.

Kadhimi, who assumed his country’s premiership in May, visited Iran on July 21 heading a high-ranking economic and political delegation and held separate meetings with his Iranian counterpart as well as the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.

In his telephone call with his Iraqi counterpart, President Rouhani expressed hope that the decisions and agreements made during Kadhimi’s visit to Tehran would be implemented as soon as possible with the efforts of the Iranian and Iraqi officials to further strengthen Tehran-Baghdad economic relations and trade exchanges.

According to Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, special advisor to Iran’s Parliament speaker, the value of Tehran-Baghdad’s annual trade relations stood at 14 billion dollars,

“The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to develop all-out bilateral relations with Iraq, and it is ready to cooperate and share experiences with Iraq in the path of fighting coronavirus,” the Iranian president told his Iraqi counterpart on the phone.

President Barham Salih, for his part, congratulated Eid al-Adha to the Iranian government and nation, and said, “The manifestation of this great festivity is the unity of Muslims and we hope the unity and cooperation among regional countries would further expand given the current conditions of the world and spread of coronavirus.”

He appreciated Iran’s supports and assistance for Iraq in its efforts to control the COVID-19 spread.

Salih further evaluated the Iraqi prime minister’s visit to Iran as positive and noted, “Expansion of all-out relations with Iran is an unavoidable principle in Iraq’s foreign policy.”

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Iran Parliament Seeks Closer Ties with Iraq

reporter 1222 — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 11:11:11 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf unveiled plans for the closer trade ties with Iraq, which he described as a strategic partner of Iran.

In a meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Tehran on Wednesday, Qalibaf said the new Iranian Parliament has devised plans for an evolution of the country’s foreign and international trade.

One of the main priorities in Parliament is promoting trade and economic ties with Iraq, as a strategic partner, and with other neighbors, he added.

Qalibaf further condemned the US assassination of top Iranian commander Lt. General Qassem Soleimani in Iraq, saying such a crime is not a simple issue and the assassination case must be pursued vigorously.

“We believe that the region will not achieve stability as long as foreign forces are present in the region,” the speaker said, adding, “We also believe that a strong and developed Iraq would be a significant model for bilateral and regional relations.”

For his part, al-Kadhimi praised Iran for supporting the Iraqi government and nation in the fight against terrorism and Daesh, saying Baghdad is determined to enhance the economic, cultural and security relations with Tehran.

The Iranian and Iraqi governments and parliaments must hold consultations to boost relations in a way that would benefit the two nations, he underlined.

On Tuesday, al-Kadhimi met with Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

In the gathering, the Leader voiced the Islamic Republic’s support for al-Kadhimi’s government, saying, “Wisdom, religion and experience require the expansion of Iran-Iraq relations. Obviously, such relations have opponents; leading them is the US. But, one should never fear the US at all, because the US can’t do a single thing.”

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Iran, Malaysia to Finalize Preferential Tariff Contract

reporter 1222 — Thu, 16 Jul 2020 04:29:57 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran and Malaysia agreed on July 15 to finalize a previously signed preferential tariff contract and hold a meeting of the joint economic commission.

The agreement was made during a video call made by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with his Malaysian counterpart Dato’ Sri Hishammuddin Hussein, IRNA reported.

The two also stressed the need to benefit from the barter trade mechanism to better serve the interest of their nations.

They further discussed the major regional, international issues, those facing the Islamic World in particular.

Referring to Malaysia’s position as an active member of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Zarif called on Hishammuddin Hussein to play his role in solving the crisis in Yemen “through the diplomatic way as the only solution” to settle the present crisis in that war-torn country.

Noting that Tehran would “welcome any initiative by Malaysia to establish peace and put an end to the crisis in Yemen,” Zarif said, “Iran will actively help bring in peace to Yemen.”

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia has been conducting bloody military aggression in Yemen with the help from its regional allies and using arms supplied by its Western backers. The aim of the war has been to bring Yemen’s former president, Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, back to power and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement.

In excess of 100,000 people have already lost their lives as a result of the military aggression in the past five years.

On July 15, more than 25 civilians were killed when Saudi warplanes carried out fresh deadly strikes in Yemen by targeting a wedding ceremony in the northern province of Al-Jawf. Women and children were among those killed in the attack, almasirah.com reported.

Zarif also appreciated Malaysia’s correct and principled stance for supporting the oppressed Palestinians beforehand.

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Freight rates between Iran, Qatar meet three times surge

reporter 1222 — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 06:12:11 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iranian exporters say freight shipping rates to Qatar have surged by up to three times as a result of a coronavirus pandemic that caused a serious halt to the trade-in West Asia.

Adnan Mousapour, who serves as the head of Iran-Qatar Joint Chamber of Commerce, said on Saturday that the pandemic had caused a serious decline in a once-booming trade between the two countries, Press TV reported.

Trade between Iran and Qatar started to thrive when the Arab country came under a blockade by Saudi Arabia and its allies in June 2017.

Iranian exporters have supplied various agricultural products as well as construction materials to Qatar, bringing in over $335 million in revenues over the past Iranian calendar year that ended March 19.

Iran’s imports from Qatar topped $30 million over the same period, said Mousapor who insisted that trade balance between the two countries could have been further in Iran’s favor if the pandemic had not caused a closure of shipping lines.

Mousapour said that the spread of the disease in Iran had also affected tourism activities between Iran and Qatar as well as a suitcase trade, which normally accounts for a major share of exchanges between the two countries.

The businessman said that many Iranian companies have been facing payment settlement issues with Qatari partners because of the pandemic closures.

Qatar, a gas-producing giant, has been spared a recent crisis in international oil markets where historically low prices have caused a major decline in revenues for oil-exporting nations.

The small country was among the fewest in the region that maintained flights to Iran, even at the height of the pandemic.

Reports in recent months have suggested that Iran and Qatar have plans to increase the size of joint investment projects, especially those in the energy sector.

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IRICA: Trade with EAEU hits $2.11b since October

reporter 1222 — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 05:07:25 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Value of Iran’s trade with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) member states during late October 2019-early June 2020, surpassed $2.11 billion, said the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

He put Iran’s imports from the EAEU countries at over $1.52 billion, saying the country exported goods worth $584 million to these states, IRNA reported.

Close to 53 percent of the transactions were based on and within the framework of a preferential trade agreement (PTA) signed between Iran and the EAEU countries in 2018.

After several years of negotiations, Iran and the EAEU finally signed the PTA in May 2018 based on which about 862 commodities are subject to tariffs. The interim agreement enabling the formation of a free trade area between Iran and the EAEU officially came into force in October 2019.

Latifi said Russia has been the main target market of Iranian products in this period, accounting for over 53 percent of Iran’s total overseas sales to the EAEU members.

He added that following Russia, the other major destinations of Iran’s exports to EAEU states have been Armenia (23 percent), Kazakhstan (16 percent), and Kyrgyzstan (less than 1.5 percent).

In addition, he noted, Russian products have constituted over 87.5 percent of the total value of Iran’s imports from the EAEU states. Other major exporters to Iran have been Kazakhstan (over 18 percent), Belarus (two percent), Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.

He listed Iran’s export items as fresh apples (accounting for 14.5 percent of the total overseas sales to the EAEU states), pistachios (11.9 percent), natural gas (8.1 percent), kiwifruit (7.2 percent) as well as raisins (three percent).

The IRICA spokesman added Iran’s imports included barley, wheat and by-products, corn for livestock, and sunflower oil.

Development of trade ties with Iran is important for EAEU members such as Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan.

The EAEU ‎is an economic union of states located in Central and Northern Asia and Eastern Europe. The ‎treaty on the EAEU was signed in May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan ‎, and Russia, and came into force in January 2015. ‎

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Iran Envoy: common border with Turkmenistan to reopen on June 10

reporter 1222 — Mon, 01 Jun 2020 05:47:03 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran and Turkmenistan have agreed to reopen their common border on June 10, said the Iranian ambassador to Ashgabat.

The decision was on the back of the gradual easing of the restrictions imposed as part of protective measures in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak across the globe, Gholamabbas Arbab-Khales told IRNA on Sunday.

He added that the reopening of the border will allow the resumption of rail and road transits between the two countries while fully complying with health and hygiene protocols.

The ambassador noted that Iran and Turkmenistan had previously agreed to reopen the border on June 1, but the date was postponed to June 10 to further conduct disinfecting operations.

He said the decision was made on Saturday by a joint working group in a videoconference.

Arbab-Khales noted that it was also decided to set up sanitizing tunnels on roads and railroads on both sides of the common borders between Iran, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in a meeting among the countries’ roads and urban development ministers and following negotiations between the heads of their national railway companies.

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Ambassador calls on companies to push exports to Italy

reporter 1222 — Thu, 28 May 2020 04:34:54 +0000

TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran’s ambassador to Italy called on Iranian companies to take more initiative in the current condition of sanctions to develop cooperation and increase exports to Italy.

During the meeting, which was organized by the Iran-Italy Joint Chamber of Commerce via video conference, Hamid Bayat presented explanations on the level of political relations between the two countries, the impact of sanctions, and the outbreak of the coronavirus on economic relations between Iran and Italy.

He talked about the role of joint chambers of commerce in developing trade relations between countries and the role of economic relations in deepening political relations between Iran and Italy.

Bayat gave advice to businessmen and companies wishing to establish trade relations with Italy, adding that relations between Tehran and Rome have a long history and there have always been good and expanding relations between the two sides in all areas.

The ambassador noted that today, despite unilateral and illegal US sanctions, although we have seen a decline in trade volume, cooperation in various areas has continued.

The Iranian ambassador also mentioned the role of the joint chambers of commerce in facilitating and strengthening trade and industrial affairs of the two countries and said that joint chambers in Iran and Italy are very active and many trade activities between the two countries are carried out by members of these chambers.

Regarding the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak, he added: “The most important effect of the virus was evident in the field of transportation and stopping of Iranian trucks on the Turkish border.”

The official also said that last year, several negotiations with the stock exchange administration of the country were held, and asked the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to solve the problem of Iranian students.

We hope that in the new academic year we will not witness any problems for Iranian students in entering Italy, Bayat said.

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