TEHRAN – Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Hossein Modares Khiabani said his ministry has it on the agenda to increase the value of exports to Iran’s 15 neighbors up to $50 billion, Tasnim news agency reported on Saturday.

“Our goal is to be able to meet five percent of our neighboring countries' needs, which would amount to more than $50 billion a year considering the total imports of all the 15 countries which is at least $1 trillion annually,” Modares Khiabani said.

“Necessary planning and investigations have been made for achieving this target,” he added.

The official expressed hope that the mentioned goal would be realized before the Iranian calendar year of 1400 (which starts in March 2021), saying that the Institute for Trade Studies and Research and also Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) are currently developing detailed plans to achieve this goal.

Back in July, Modares Khiabani had said that following the government’s policies for increasing the country’s trade with the neighbors, new commercial attachés are going to be sent to neighboring countries.

Increasing non-oil exports to the neighboring countries is one of the major plans that Iranian government is pursuing in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21).

Iran shares border with fifteen countries, namely the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia, Oman, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kuwait, Qatar, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia.

Based on the data published by TPO, the value of trade with the neighboring countries stood at over $36.5 billion in the past Iranian calendar year, that is about 41 percent of the country’s total non-oil trade in the mentioned time span.

Iran plans to launch 15 mega export projects to identify more target markets, according to TPO’s former acting head, Mohammadreza Modoudi.

The official said that with the implementation of these projects, which mainly focus on the markets of neighboring countries, identifying professional trade and promoting export of non-oil commodities will be put on agenda.

Also on June 24, Sadeq Najafi, the senior advisor to Iran’s industry, mining and trade minister, said the ministry has planned that the annual export of commodities and services to Iran’s 15 neighbor countries will reach $32 billion in the current Iranian calendar year.

EF/MA