Iran says can transit 60mln tons of goods from Central Asia yearly
2 Min Read
Iran reveals that it is capable of transiting 60 million tons of goods from Central Asian states per year, highlighting its importance in the global trade.
-
From the left: Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, Turkmenistan's President Serdar Berdymukhamedov, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Kazakhstan's President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev pose for a photo on the sideline of the summit of Caspian Sea littoral states in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Wednesday, June 29, 2022 (Grigory Sysoyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)
Iran has the potential to transit a staggering 60 million tonnes of commodities annually from Central Asia, Iranian state-run news agency IRNA said Thursday.
If Iran becomes the transit hub it is capable of being, that could result in a substantial $60 billion in annual revenue, surpassing the income generated from the country's oil trade, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mahdi Safari said, as per IRNA.
Safari made these remarks during a visit to the Incheh Borun customs office in the northern Golestan province, which shares its border with Turkmenistan.
Iran's foreign and road ministries are actively engaged in efforts to expand trade with neighboring countries, aligning with the directives of President Ebrahim Raisi's administration.
Crucially, Safari highlighted that the expansion of commodity trade with Central Asian neighbors hinges on the robust infrastructure in Iran's border areas, most notably along the Caspian Sea coast.
The comprehensive network of rail, road, and maritime facilities is expected to play a pivotal role in facilitating seamless trade operations and possibly making Iran a more desirable transit hub than other neighboring states.
The Islamic Republic has been in the past few years moving forward toward expanding cooperation and ties with regional and non-regional countries in the fields of trade, politics, and security among other areas as well.
There have been talks about a free-trade zone in the region for the past year, with Iran's Deputy Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade, Alireza Peyman-Pak, saying a free trade agreement between Iran and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) would be signed soon.
Safari previously discussed the potential free trade zone between Iran, Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan as "a turning point in the expansion of ties" and proposed creating rail, road, and maritime transport corridors between the six countries to streamline trade in industrial and agricultural goods.
Iran has been developing its stature in the region, with Peyman-Pak telling Mehr in late November 2021 that trade turnover between Iran and the EAEU reached $5 billion in 2021 from $2.3 billion in 2015, an increase of around 55%.
