The volume of trade turnover between Iran and Azerbaijan is estimated to surge by at least 80% over the current Iranian year (to end March 21), an Iranian trade official said.
Considering the close diplomatic ties between Tehran and Baku and the existing plans for cooperation between the two neighboring countries, the level of trade turnover is expected to hit $1 billion on the medium-term, Mohammad-Ebrahim Naghizadeh, Iran’s commercial attache to Azerbaijan, said.
Saying that the value of trade turnover between the neighboring countries increased by 66% over the first half of 2016, the attache added that there had been a rapid acceleration in the growth of Azerbaijan’s exports to Iran.
According to Naghizadeh, the boom in the growth of Azerbaijan’s exports to Iran came as a result of policies adopted by Azerbaijani government aimed at reforming its economic structure and the promotion of exports and production.
According to the latest statistics by Iran’s Custom Administration, the Islamic Republic imported worth of $15.4 million of goods from Azerbaijan over the first quarter of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 20.
The commercial attache describes this year’s increase in the level of Azerbaijan’s exports to Iran as tremendous, saying that the volume of Azerbaijan’s exports to the Islamic Republic over the whole last year stood at $15.5 million.
Naghizadeh further touched upon plans for booming transportation cooperation between the two countries saying that an ongoing construction project for linking the railways of Iran and Azerbaijan was of priority.
According to the official, connecting Iran-Azerbaijan railways will contribute to the reduction of transportation costs as well as booming their volume of trade turnover.
Cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan in transportation sector will also help increase the volume of their exports to other countries such as Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, he added. (Trend/Business World Magazine)