Azerbaijan, Baku, July 19/ Trend, N. Umid /
Iranian and Turkmen merchants plan to boost trade turnover by 100 percent reaching $10 billion, the IRNA news agency reported.
The Iran-Turkmenistan trade turnover reached some $5billion in last solar year (end on March 21).
According to a Iran Custom Administration report, Turkmenistan exported some $244 million worth of gas during first three month of the current solar year. The value of imports was some $15 million in the same period.
Iran imported 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas worth $3.5 billion from Turkmenistan in the last solar year. This indicates a 50 per cent decrease compared to the previous solar year, Mehr news agency quoted Iran's Deputy Oil Minister Javad Oji as saying.
Iran is Turkmenistan's second largest trade partner after Russia, the report said.
Iran's highest foreign trade balance was with Iraq, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Egypt during the first quarter of the current solar year.
Iran and Turkmenistan held a meeting from July 8-9 in Ashgabat, in which the two sides discussed different ways to expand transportation ties.
The two countries agreed to establish new flights, develop rail networks, and facilitate road transportation.
Acceleration of works for the completion of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, which will provide access for Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf, was discussed too.
In July 2012, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi and his Turkmen counterpart Rashid Meredov signed an MOU at the end of the 12th session of the Iran-Turkmenistan Joint Economic Commission in Tehran.
"We will make our utmost effort to fulfill the wish of the two countries' presidents to improve the volume of trade and economic ties to $10 billion within the next years," Salehi said.