Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 14
By Khalid Kazimov - Trend:
Managing Director of the Trade Education Center of Iran's Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade Abbas Khaleghi Tabar has said that of Turkey's annual $250 billion import, Iran shares less than 5 percent, Mehr news agency reported on Feb. 14.
The official said that Iran stands second, next to Russia, in terms of exporting gas to Turkey.
"Iran's export to Turkey stands at $11.5 a year. Of that, less than $2 billion goes as non-oil products. Since Turkey's export to Iran is $3.5, we can take measures to make our non-oil export to Turkey equal our import from that country," he said.
"Last year, Turkey was our sixth export market and our fifth source of import."
He added that Iran is planning to boost trade relations with Turkey by conducting meetings between commerce chambers and other related officials from both countries.
Khaleghi Tabar further noted that on Mar. 2, Iran and Turkey are going to hold a series of meetings attended by top trade officials, in which markets in both sides will be explored and decisions will be made to boost mutual trade.
He expressed happiness that in the past few years, Iran-Turkey trade has been steadily on the rise and said that Iran plans to improve the mutual trade volume to worth $30 billion a year.
On Jan. 26, it was announced that Tehran and Ankara were working on a plan to use their national currencies in their trade exchanges.
Iran and Turkey have been pursuing the increase of ties in various fields in the last two decades. Iran is a main energy supplier to Turkey and Ankara has made huge investments in Iran.
Iran is a main destination of Turkish goods and Turkey is among the top destinations of Iranian tourists and traders.
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