TEHRAN – Excluding Iran’s tea imports from Sri Lanka, the non-oil trade exchanges between the two nations is relatively limited at present. It stands at around $30 million, noted here on Sunday, Iranian Minister of Industries and Mines Alireza Tahmasbi.

However, the trade volume – tea included - hits over $50 million, noted the official during a meeting for signing Iran-Sri Lanka technical cooperation agreement.

Iran and Sri Lanka’s trade exchanges during the past two years have stood at around $400 million, he said adding that, however, economic relations between the two nations in particular in the exports of technical and engineering services should be boosted.

The minister asserted that building cement and steel production plants, auto industries and transfer of technical and technological know-how in the oil exploration and extraction and mining sectors are the areas Iranian experts could help Sri Lanka with.

For his part, Sri Lanka’s minister of Industrial Development Kumara Welgama stressed the need for further development of industrial cooperation between the Islamic Republic and his country.

“Iran enjoys good technological potentials and we call for Iran’s cooperation in supplying Sri Lanka with machineries and equipments, helping us in the agricultural sector, building cement production plants, auto industries, iron exploration and extraction and building steel mill,” Welgama said in conclusion.