Tehran, Iran, February 28
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Pakistani banks have come to Iran to explore the mechanisms to facilitate exchange of money between Pakistani and Iranian companies in order to facilitate bilateral business.
"The State Bank of Pakistan, which is the country's central bank, has not allowed us to put arrangements in place until recently when sanctions on Iran were lifted," Ariful Islam, deputy CEO and executive director of Meezan Bank of Pakistan told Trend February 27 during a Pakistani delegation meeting with Iranian partners at Tehran Chamber of Commerce.
Pakistan has decided to lift sanctions against Iran and has devised a strategy to promote trade ties with the oil rich country, according to a ministerial meeting's decision in mid-February.
Speaking about his country's urgent needs, Mr Islam said Pakistan is suffering shortage of power and needs 5,000 megawatts of electricity.
"Pakistan has already imported power from Iran. But business between the two countries has been done in cash. Now we are seeing to facilitate normal banking, I mean using LCs, etc.," he said.
"The dollar is not open yet, so we are looking forward to using the euro, ACU, the dirham, etc."
Pakistani-Iranian trade started declining gradually from the level of $1321.3 million in 2008-2009 to a mere $218 million in 2013-2014. Pakistan's exports to Iran in 2013-2014 declined to $53 million from $ 97.7 million in 2012-2013.