TEHRAN - Iran exported 80 million tons of non-oil commodities worth $24.5 billion during the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), registering a 17-percent rise in terms of weight, IRIB reported.

According to Deputy Industry Minister Hossein Modares Khiabani, in terms of value the figure fell 11 percent in comparison to the last year’s same time span.
The official noted that the government has allocated 870 billion rials (about $20.7 million) of facilities to be used as incentives for the country’s exporters in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020), adding that such incentives could boost the country’s non-oil exports.

Back in August, Khiabani had said his ministry was planning to increase the value of Iran’s non-oil exports to its 15 neighbors up to $50 billion.

“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,” he said.

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.

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.

EF/MA