Iran-Turkmenistan trade expected to rise by 50%: Chamber head
The annual trade between Iran and Turkmenistan is expected to increase 30 to 50 percent by the end of the current Iranian year (March 20, 2025), said Ramezan Bahrami, the head of the Iran-Turkmenistan Chamber of Commerce.
Talking to Iran Daily, Bahrami stressed that with a focus on boosting trade, the Embassy of Iran in Turkmenistan and the Embassy of Turkmenistan in Iran will work to improve bilateral relations.
According to initiatives taken by the Iran-Turkmenistan Chamber of Commerce to develop trade exchanges, the result of these measures will be seen by the year-end, he noted.
Bahrami went on to say that holding an exhibition of Iran’s export capabilities (Iran Expo 2024) in in Tehran as well as holding an agrofood exhibition in Ashgabat, in upcoming September and exchanging trade delegations in the coming months are among the efforts by the Iran-Turkmenistan Chamber of Commerce to raise the level of bilateral trade.
The current volume of commercial exchanges between Iran and Turkmenistan does not reflect the capacities of the two countries in the field of trade, criticized Bahrami, noting that the annual bilateral trade stood at $450 million during the year to March 19.
Iran’s major export products to Turkmenistan include food, construction materials, chemicals and petrochemicals, minerals and techno-engineering services, and on the other hand, minerals and raw materials needed in the textile industry are among the major exports of Turkmenistan to Iran.
Bahrami called Turkmenistan a gateway for the transit of Iranian goods to Central Asian countries and added that Turkmen traders believe that Iranian goods and products are welcome by the people of Central Asian states.
The government should support the increase in the share of the private sector in the business sector and limit its performance to supervisory tasks in the business sector, he suggested.
Bahrami went on to say that the government should facilitate the trade procedure in terms of regulations as the existing rules in the field of trade and free economy are very strict and sometimes unenforceable.
“Currently, there are good relations between the two countries as the heads of the two countries are determined to resolve all problems.”
To keep the current rising trend of trade between the two countries, Tehran and Ashgabat should pay further attention to infrastructures to set the ground for more developed economic ties, Bahrami concluded.