TEHRAN- The head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) says the country has the capacity to increase exports to its 15 neighbors up to $100 billion, IRNA reported.

Speaking in the meeting of an expert desk on exports to Qatar and Oman in the southern province of Hormozgan on Thursday, Hamid Zadboum said: “Pakistan and Turkey have the highest capacity to import Iranian goods, which is good news for Iranian businessmen and exporters.”

He further pointed to the Persian Gulf states, as good markets for some Iranian-made commodities, adding that large markets such as Russia and China should also be considered by exporters.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official put Iran-Qatar, and Iran-Oman trade turnovers at $230 million and $1.16 billion, respectively, saying that the figures could be increased much more.

The TPO head further announced that the Iran-Qatar Joint Economic Committee meeting is due to be held in Tehran in the upcoming months in which the two sides are going to explore ways of expanding economic ties.

An exhibition of the two countries’ economic capabilities is also scheduled to be held on the sidelines of the committee meeting. 

Back in November 2019, Head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) said that the government is seeking to double the value of non-oil exports to the neighboring countries in the next Iranian calendar year (March 2020-March 2021).

“Based on the targets set, we (have to) bring the non-oil exports to $48 billion from the $24-billion that we currently have,” Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht said.

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 whose total value of annual imports exceed $1000 billion.

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