Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.9 / Trend F.Mehdi/
Iran and Turkey plan to form their joint economic committee in the near future, aiming to boost transit through border areas, the Fars News Agency quoted Iranian Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Shahryar Afandizadeh as saying.
We are planning to expand bilateral economic ties in order to boost the value of trade day by day through reducing the time for loading and unloading cargoes, he added.
Iran plans to find new routes for expanding transit of goods, Afandizadeh told the Mehr News Agency on Friday.
He added that Iran welcomes holding a trilateral meeting with Turkey and Turkmenistan in this regard.
As a member of the Economic Cooperation Organization, Iran seeks to boost the volume of transits through Turkey, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and China, he noted.
In January, Afandizadeh said that Iran, Iraq, and Syria have signed an agreement to expand cooperation through boosting transit of goods through joint borders.
Another agreement will be signed in the near future by Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Oman, and Qatar in order to boost transit of goods from Chabahar Port to the CIS countries, he noted.
In October, 2012, Afandizadeh said that the volume of transited goods via Iran has increased by 75 percent compared to four years ago.
Afandizadeh told IRNA that over 5.8 million tons of goods were transited via Iran in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 20, showing a 25 percent growth year on year.
He added that 2.4 million tons of the transited goods were oil products and the rest were non-oil products.
The highest volume of the transited goods was related to transiting 1.8 million tons of goods from Iraq to the UAE.
Afandizadeh said that more than 100 countries are currently transiting their goods via Iran.