Niloofar Assadi, the caretaker of international affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) says that Iran and Pakistan have to devise new mechanisms to give a boost to their bilateral relations.
Assadi made the remarks addressing a major business forum of Iran and Pakistan in Tehran on Wednesday.
The forum was participated by more than 100 Pakistani businesspeople from Karachi, Lahore and Quetta.
Assadi said that the economic ties between the two countries is not satisfactory, urging the need for both nations to devise new mechanisms to enhance relations.
Referring to major strong links between the private sectors of the two neighboring countries, she stressed the necessity of planning for making joint investment and production and more increased relations in the area of tourism, health tourism in particular.
Assadi also called for reviving a preferential trade agreement with Pakistan, more cooperation on textile and overseas farming, and focusing on facilitating barter trade between the two nations.
Speaking in the meantime, Abdolhakim Rigi, the head of Iran-Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce said that volume of trade between the two nations has grown to $2.5 billion.
He said that bilateral trade between Tehran and Islamabad can double to $5 billion which would require both countries to prepare the necessary grounds, including implementation of preferential trade, lifting the customs bans and making a better use of border markets.
He called the complication of the barter trade a serious obstacle to trade between Iran and Pakistan, adding that the barter trade mechanism proposed by Zahedan Chamber of Commerce is so simple while the interference of the central banks of the two countries has complicated the issue.