President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Samad Hassanzadeh says more enhanced trade between Iran and Tajikistan rests upon establishment of a preferential trade regime between the two countries.
He made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran on Tuesday with Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Iran Nizomiddin Zohidi.
Hassanzadeh said that sudden increase of customs tariffs on certain Iranian export items to Tajikistan is an obstacle to bilateral trade, urging the country to reconsider its decision.
Noting that trade exchanges between Iran and Tajikistan has grown from $100 million to $270 million in two years, the Iran Chamber of Commerce president however said that the figure is far from the existing potentials.
He also referred to Tajikistan’s rich water resources and said that Iran is interested in overseas farming in the Central Asian country.
Iran’s techno-engineering capability in constructing power plants is another area in which the two countries can cooperate, Hassanzadeh said.
Stressing the significance of exchanging trade delegations between Tehran and Dushanbe, he voiced the readiness of Iran Chamber of Commerce to host a trade delegation from Tajikistan after the Persian New Year (Nowruz) holidays.
The Tajik ambassador, for his part, said that the volume of trade between Iran and Tajikistan has never gone beyond $350 million while the presidents of the two countries plan to increase bilateral trade to $500 million.
Noting that Iran and Tajikistan have signed over 250 cooperation documents in 30 years, he said that if half of these documents had become operational, bilateral exchanges would have now reached as much as $1 billion.
The ambassador said that cancelation of visa requirements between Iran and Tajikistan would take effect since the beginning of Nowruz, inviting the Iran Chamber of Commerce president to pay a visit to the country at the head of a trade delegation.