TPO holds seminar on Iran-Turkmenistan trade opportunities

TEHRAN – Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) has held a seminar on the trade opportunities of Iran and Turkmenistan as the Islamic Republic is going to hold specialized agrifood exhibition in Turkmenistan, the TPO portal reported.

The event was attended by senior officials including Mahmoud Bazari, director-general of TPO’s Export Coordination Office, Akbar Godari, head of the organization’s Central Asia, Caucasus and Russia office, and Gholam-Abbas Arbab Khales, the former ambassador of Iran in Turkmenistan.

Speaking at the seminar, Bazari considered Iran’s Agrofood exhibition as a major event in Turkmenistan and said: “Turkmenistan is a potential and important market for Iranian products and services. The country has a special position in the International North-South Corridor, whose capacities can be used to develop exports.”

According to the official, the purpose of Iran Agrofood exhibition in Turkmenistan is to showcase the Islamic republic’s capabilities in the food and agricultural sector and also to show Iran’s ability in producing industrial and agricultural machinery.

Referring to Iran’s ability to produce food products in the region, he pointed out: “Iran has the ability to produce and supply food to the region, and this is also mentioned in the Seventh National Development Plan. It seems that if the export obstacles are removed, the realization of the goals of the national development plan is not far from reach.”

Further in the event, Godari presented a report on Iran’s export products to Turkmenistan and said: “80 percent of Iran’s export goods to Turkmenistan are mineral sand industrial products, and the other 20 percent are agricultural and petrochemical products.”

Back in June, Godari had announced that the trade of food and agricultural products between Iran and Turkmenistan increased by 35 percent in the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-May 21).

According to Godari, the trade between the two countries has been following an upward trend over the past two years.

Earlier in November 2023, TPO Head Mehdi Zeyghami announced the beginning of drafting a comprehensive economic cooperation document between the Islamic Republic and Turkmenistan.

Referring to the holding of the 17th Iran-Turkmenistan Joint Economic Committee meeting in Ashgabat and the visit of the Iranian delegation to Turkmenistan, Zeyghami said: “This trip was very fruitful because the minister of foreign affairs of Turkmenistan and the Iranian head of the joint committee are working to create a comprehensive economic and trade document between the two countries.”

The official said the Islamic Republic was going to dispatch a commercial attaché to Turkmenistan in the current Iranian calendar year (ends in late March 2025) to pursue the drafting of the mentioned document.

Saying that last year $500 million of trade exchange was done between Iran and Turkmenistan, the official noted: “This year we will witness the same amount of trade between the two countries, and according to the agreements made, there is a possibility of significant growth in trade exchange.”

He further referred to Turkmenistan’s interest in participating in Iran’s specialized exhibitions, saying: “The two countries have good interactions in the field of construction materials and technical and engineering services, but there is no extensive interaction in other specialized fields such as industrial machinery, knowledge-based industries, and medical equipment, and the visit of Turkmen companies to Iranian exhibitions will create the opportunity for such interactions.”