President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei on Sunday proposed the launch of a joint committee of investment between Tehran and Tashkent.
Shafei made the remarks during a meeting in Tehran with Davron Vahabov, the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan where they explored ways for increasing the level of cooperation and bilateral trade.
He believed that this committee can conduct detailed studies on suitable fields for making investments in both Iran and Uzbekistan and provide the results to the businessmen and the private sectors of the two sides for further cooperation.
Referring to the establishment of an economic system in Uzbekistan which is largely based on free trade, the Iran Chamber of Commerce president said that Uzbekistan’s current volume of trade is as much as $50 billion which is a considerable amount.
He also hailed the formation of Iran-Uzbekistan Joint Chamber of Commerce and called for the establishment of a mirror chamber of commerce in Uzbekistan.
One of the main obstacles on the way of expansion of economic relations between Iran and Uzbekistan is transportation problems, particularly rail transportation, Shafei said, regretting that some third countries are contributing to this problems.
He also referred to previous negotiations for establishing an arbitration center between the chambers of commerce of Iran and Uzbekistan and expressed hope that this center will be launched as soon as possible to help resolve the legal problems on the way of trade between the two countries.
Shafei said that a major Iranian trade delegation is scheduled to visit Uzbekistan after the end of the holy month of Ramadan (late April), voicing Tehran’s readiness to host delegations from Uzbekistan.
Noting that Iran has many potentials for making joint investments in SMEs, he said that Uzbekistan has huge capacities in agriculture and Iran is advanced in processing industries which makes it possible for both nations to cooperate in these areas.
The Uzbek side said in the meantime that the volume of trade between Iran and Uzbekistan hit $500 million in 2022.
Noting that Tehran and Tashkent can mobilize all the potentials to multiply bilateral trade, Vahabov said he was sure that the volume of trade between the two countries can rise by 20 or 30 percent this year.
He also welcomed a proposal by Iran Chamber of Commerce president for the establishment of a mirror joint chamber of commerce in Tashkent.
He said that an arbitration center is currently active in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Uzbekistan, noting that the chambers of commerce on both sides can link the arbitration centers so as to deal with and resolve the possible disputes between the businesspeople from both countries.