Tehran, Iran, Aug. 8
By Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
After removal of sanctions against Iran, a large flow of investment into the country will start, foreign companies will try to gain a foothold on the Iranian market, head of the Turkish Center for Strategic Studies, MP from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party Sinan Ogan told Trend.
Turkish companies will also take part in this process, and they have more chances compared to companies from other countries, he said.
"We could implement it earlier, but the sanctions were an obstacle for that," said Ogan.
He went on to add that one can expect the double growth of trade turnover between Iran and Turkey.
He also said that Turkey is Iran's "window" to the West.
Ogan said that the two countries have differences, mainly on the Syrian issue, which can affect economic relations. However, other policy differences will not affect economic relations, he said.
"In recent years, terrorist attacks against commercial vehicles engaged in transportation between the two countries are carried out," he said. "It seems that some external forces are not interested in development of economic relations between the two countries."
Iranian MPs share Sinan Ogan's view.
Iranian-Turkish relations are of strategic nature, a member of the Economic Commission of Iran-Turkey Interparliamentary friendship group Mohammad Alipour told Trend.
He said that Turkey is a very important neighbor for Iran as Iran for Turkey.
Nader Ghazipour, the member of the Iranian Parliamentary Commission of Industry and Mines, told Trend that Iran and Turkey are neighbors and must cooperate, but the policy pursued by Turkey now in the Middle East creates problems for the current good relations between the two countries.
Mansour Haghighatpour, deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian parliament, told Trend that both countries are interested in cooperation, but the current Turkish policy towards Syria is an obstacle for such cooperation.
Iran imported goods from Turkey in the amount of $3.822 billion last year (Iranian calendar year begins March 21). Turkey ranks fourth by the volume of products imported to Iran. During this period, Iran's non-oil exports to Turkey reached $ 2.15 billion. At the same time, Iran daily exports about 100,000 barrels of crude oil and 27 million cubic meters of gas to Turkey.
Moreover, Turkey imported 2.4 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity from Iran last year. In 2014, the trade turnover between Iran and Turkey reached $ 14 billion. In 2000, the index hit $1 billion and officials of the two countries said that it will reach $30-35 billion next years.
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