TEHRAN- Turkey tries decisively for the expansion of economic ties with Iran, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said in a meeting with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Saturday.

Expressing content with his trip to Tehran, Davutoglu underlined his country’s decisiveness in expanding vigorous relations in various economic fields, specifically in banking, and noted that some measures have been done on the way to reinforce cooperation between the two sides’ stock exchange markets, according to the IRNA news agency.

The Turkish prime minister, elsewhere, underscored the vitality of converting the current preferential trade agreement (PTA) between the two countries into free trade agreement (FTA) in future.

Earlier this month, Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi visited Davutoglu in Iran-Turkey Joint Economic Committee, where expressed Iran’s readiness to develop ties with Turkey in banking and tourism sectors.

Davutoglu, for his part, said that his country is keen to invest in Iran’s different sectors, including tourism, emphasizing that the administrations of both countries should direct their private sectors toward the realization of shared economic aims.

In his visit to Iran at the head of a 160-strong delegation on March 5, Davutoglu said, “The geography and economic structures of Iran and Turkey are like the pieces of a puzzle which complete each other.”

Turkey was the fourth largest exporter of goods to Iran in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 19, 2016; meanwhile, in its preceding year (March 2014-March 2015) Turkey was the 6th major importer of Iranian non-oil goods.

The two countries also maintain close energy ties. Turkey is one of the major customers of Iranian gas and imports 10 billion cubic meters of the product from Iran every year. 

HJ/MA