Regarding their present potentials, Iran and Turkey can enhance the volume of their bilateral trade up to $100 billion per annum, Mahmoud Va’ezi, the Iranian minister of communications and information technology said in Tehran on Saturday.

“Both sides are resolved to reach a 30-billion-dollar trade volume in the near future, the goal which has been set by the two countries’ presidents in their recent meeting,” Va’ezi said in a meeting with Erdal Bahcivan, the chairman of Istanbul Chamber of Industry, IRNA reported.

During the meeting, Va’ezi highlighted the measures taken by Iranian and Turkish banks on the ways to ease transactions and lamented that “Turkish banks are under the influence of westerners but we hope that they will take an independent attitude.”

The Turkish official, for his part, emphasized on the key role that the private sector plays in hitting the determined trade volume and noted that the Turkish administration is in charge of removing banking barriers and lowering customs tariffs to set a proper environment for expansion of common trade ties.

Elsewhere in his remarks, he addressed the issue of improving joint telecommunication relations and asked for establishment of a Turkish information technology park in Iran.

On April 16, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu in a meeting with the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran, 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.

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

Earlier in the same month, 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.

 

Describing Iran as the most stable country in West Asia, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif invited New Zealand investors to seize the opportunities in the Iranian market.
Zarif made the statement in an address to a meeting of New Zealand Business Council in Wellington on Monday, which was also attended by ambassadors of the two countries.
Also on Monday, Zarif held talks with a host of other New Zealand officials, including Prime Minister John Key, Trade Minister Todd McClay, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Labour Party Leader Andrew Little.
New Zealand’s trade with Iran could surpass pre-sanctions levels and tap into “vast possibilities”, the Auckland-based newspaper New Zealand Herald quoted Zarif as saying ahead of his meeting with John Key.
“We continue to buy butter and milk products from you, but we are interested in going beyond that and engaging in long-term economic relations with New Zealand,” he told Radio New Zealand on Monday.
He said new trade possibilities include investment in petrochemical products and high-tech areas such as geothermal, nanotechnology and biotechnology.
Iran was New Zealand’s fifth largest trading partner in the 1980s before sanctions hit Iran. Along with many western nations, New Zealand lifted sanctions against Iran last month.
New Zealand exporters describe the removal of sanctions as an opportunity to tap into new markets and renew the country’s relationship with an old trading partner, Radio New Zealand reported.
In his meeting with McClay, the two sides investigated obstacles to strengthening bilateral ties, particularly in the field of banking services, Mehr News Agency reported.
Zarif invited McClay to visit Tehran in the near future.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Iranian foreign minister met with his New Zealand counterpart Murray McCully to discuss trade and economic issues. The two ministers signed off on an arrangement between the Export Credit Office and Export Guarantee Fund of Iran, which McCully said would help give exporters more confidence in the trading arrangements.
“We are very pleased to welcome Minister Zarif to New Zealand. His visit is the first by an Iranian foreign minister in over 10 years and allows us to refresh the relationship between our two countries following the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal in January,” McCully said.
Later on Monday, Zarif was due to speak at an event for the Institute of International Affairs before leaving for Australia.
The Iranian foreign minister arrived in New Zealand early Saturday as the fifth leg of his Asia-Pacific tour, which started the previous Saturday and also took him to Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei and Thailand.