Iranian ambassador visits LCCI

While pledging to enhance the volume of two-way trade to 10 billion dollars from existing a bit over one billion dollar, the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Ali Reza Haghighian has said talks on gas and electricity projects are well on way and would be materialised soon.
The Ambassador was speaking at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Wednesday. Iranian Consul General in Lahore Mohammad Hussain Bani Asadi was also present on the occasion. He said that the business community in the two countries would have to increase interaction to share their experiences in the larger interests of the people of two brotherly nations who have many commonalties. He said that the volume of mutual trade between Pakistan and Iran does not match the level of their brotherly relations.
The Ambassador said that both the countries and their respective trade bodies would have to focus on expansion of trade by holding single country exhibitions or through trade delegations to each other's country. He said that it was the duty of the chambers of commerce both in Iran and Pakistan to ensure dissemination of sector-specific and trade-related information. He said that both the countries should also share their experiences in the field of science and technology also.
Ali Reza Haghighian said that a strategy would be evolved to remove the impediments coming the way of two-way trade and to achieve the desired results new targets would be set in the light of past experiences. He said that agriculture, livestock and garments sectors in Iran have a lot of opportunities of investment therefore Pakistani business community should avail this opportunity.
Speaking on the occasion, the LCCI president called for measures to curb the menace of smuggling that is fast spreading its tentacles and coming in the way of expansion of two-way trade. Bilateral trade from the last some years is constantly maintaining the level of over one billion dollars. Like from 2008 to 2010, it stood around US $1.16 billion, US $1.21 billion and US $1.07 billion respectively, he said. There exists a lot of potential to take it to over US $10 billion mark if smuggling is curtailed and direct trade is started instead of trading via third destination, he added.
The LCCI president said that though traditionally, the balance of trade favours Iran but currently this gap is increasing from the last couple of years. Trade trends confirm that our imports from Iran are sure to go over one billion dollars. In contrast to that our exports to Iran are constantly loosing the momentum. It stood around US $426 million in 2008 which dropped to US $252 million in 2009 and went further down to US $182 million in 2010. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that facilitating bilateral trade in local currencies can be instrumental in seriously improving two-way trade. China and Russia have already started trade in their local currencies.