Trade With Turkey To Reach $30b

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First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi said Iran and Turkey have agreed to increase their annual trade exchanges to $30 billion.

“Following a proposal from Iran, the volume of trade between Iran and Turkey will increase to $30 billion within the next five years,” IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying on Tuesday.

He added, “The volume of trade ties between Iran and Turkey stands at about $11 billion, which is not satisfactory. We should conduct some of our trade in the local currencies of rial and lira by having a joint bank.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Tehran on Monday and was officially welcomed by Rahimi in a ceremony on Tuesday.

Leap in Ties
An economic official also told Iranian and Turkish businessmen that the decision to increase trade is important but this can only materialize through state support.

Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines Mohammad Nahavandian said the visit by the Turkish trade and economic delegation to Iran opened a new chapter in bilateral ties.

He then called on both sides to make joint investments to boost trade.

According to the official, Iranian exports to Turkey comprise oil and gas and for the same reason the energy sector is an appropriate ground for joint investment projects.

He called transportation and transit among other sectors for joint investment projects and underlined the necessity of forming a committee to remove obstacles.

Nahavandian also underscored the necessity of paving the way for banking relations and said opening bank branches in the two countries would be helpful.

The official also called tourism as another field for cooperation, adding that there are many investment opportunities in the sector.

Erdogan and his accompanying delegation, as well as Iran’s Commerce Minister Massoud Mirkazemi were also present at the gathering.

Nabucco Needs Iran
In a separate meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Erdogan extended his country’s support for Iran’s participation in the Nabucco gas pipeline project.

The project worth 7.9 billion euros envisages supply of gas from the Caspian region to the EU countries. Construction of the gas pipeline is scheduled for 2011. The first supplies will be launched in 2014. Maximal capacity of the pipeline will hit 31 billion cubic meters per year.

Yet, finding a reliable supplier or group of suppliers for the gas pipeline has long been the main obstacle in the way of the project.

“I believe that the Nabucco partners will realize the importance of Iran’s participation in the project sooner or later,” Erdogan said on Tuesday.

He noted that Ankara will underline the necessity for Iran’s participation in the multibillion-dollar gas project in meetings with other project partners.

The proposed 3,300-kilometer Nabucco pipeline aims to carry natural gas from Central Asia via Turkey and the Balkan states to Austria, bypassing Russia and Ukraine.

Trade Volume
The value of Iran-Turkey trade exchanges in the first nine months of 2008 rose by 41 percent to reach $8.3 billion, making Iran Turkey’s seventh trade partner in the world.

Turkey’s exports to Iran in the said period showed an increase of 64.3 percent and Iran’s exports to Turkey indicated a rise of 36.6 percent compared with the same period of the previous year.
 
The figure stood at $1.9 billion in September 2008, up by 34.34 percent compared with $814.3 million for the same month in 2007.

Turkey’s exports to Iran reached $153.6 million in September 2008, showing an increase of 42.4 percent compared with the same figure of a year ago. Turkey’s imports from Iran were up by 33.1 in September 2007, reaching $940.9 million.

Tehran and Ankara have signed a deal on joint gas production and export of Iranian gas via Turkey to Europe.

The two sides formerly held talks over the use of national currencies in bilateral trade to double the annual trade volume.

Iran and Turkey have set the target of $20 billion in annual trade by 2011, while the annual value of trade hit $10 billion in 2008.

By Ghanbar Naderi

© Iran Daily 2009