TEHRAN - Iran’s Foreign Economic Relations Coordination Committee has held its third meeting to assess the latest status of bilateral economic projects with neighboring countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

According to IRNA, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari presided over the meeting on Sunday.

While explaining the importance of developing relations with Caucasian and Central Asian countries, Safari emphasized the need for cooperation between all relevant institutions and the private sector to take maximum advantage of the capacity for developing relations, especially in the field of export of technical and engineering services, transit, export of knowledge-based products, energy, industry, mining, and exchange of professors and students.

The latest status of plans and projects with these countries, obstacles and ways to solve them as well as facilitate the process of finalizing and implementing those projects were discussed in the meeting.

Deputies and managers of executive bodies, staff, and representatives of the private sector were present during the meeting held at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

The value of Iran’s trade with its neighbors increased by 1.35 percent in the previous Iranian calendar year to reach $60.773 billion, according to Rezvanifar.

The weight of non-oil trade with the neighboring countries stood at 95.924 million tons in the said period, which was 2.45 percent less than the figure for the preceding year.

During the past year, Iran exported $28.288 billion worth of goods to its neighbors, while importing commodities valued at $32.485 billion.

Iran's exports to neighboring countries decreased by 9.51 percent in the mentioned year; while the imports from neighboring countries increased by 13.17 percent.

Iraq, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Pakistan, and Afghanistan were the top importers of Iranian goods among the neighboring countries, and the UAE, Turkey, Russia, Oman, and Pakistan were also the main sources of imports in the previous.

The value of Iran’s foreign trade including oil and technical engineering services reached $153.17.8 billion in the last Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19).

The value of the Islamic Republic’s trade with the partners in the previous year increased by 2.6 percent compared to the same period last year, Tasnim News Agency reported.

Iran exported $35.87 billion of crude oil, $370 million of electricity, and $1.293 billion of technical engineering services in the mentioned year, according to Rezvanifar.

According to Iran’s Customs Administration, during this period, 48.8 million tons of petrochemical products worth $19.4 billion were also exported, which shows a decrease of 11.32 percent and 28.59 percent in terms of weight and value, respectively.

Liquefied natural gas with $3.9 billion, liquefied propane with $3.62 billion, and bitumen-oil with $2.19 billion were Iran’s top exported items.

Iran's top export destination during this period was China with $13.915 billion worth of imports from the Islamic Republic, followed by Iraq with $9.215 billion, the UAE with over $6.611 billion, Turkey with $4.16 billion, and India with $2.17 billion.

EF/