YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Armenia and Iran are planning to raise the bilateral economic relations to a higher level, increase the trade turnover volumes and boost the ties between the businessmen of the two countries. 

Yerevan hosted today an Armenian-Iranian Business Forum. 

Photos by Mkhitar Khachatryan

The delegation led by the Governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan Province Abedin Khorram has arrived in Yerevan at the invitation of Armenian Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan. The Iranian delegation includes representatives of public sector, traders, businessmen who are going to meet with Armenian businessmen.

“We expect that these meetings will be productive. New business contracts will be signed which could be an important impetus for trade turnover”, Deputy Minister of Economy of Armenia Armen Arzumanyan said. 

The trade turnover between Armenia and Iran is growing. A huge growth has been registered in the first 6 months of 2022 compared to the same period of 2021. “It has been around 307 million dollars in 2022, and 224 million dollars in the same period of 2021. We expect to have more intensive growth in the second half of the year”, he said.

Arzumanyan assured that the ministry, the government, the embassy and the commercial attache of Armenia in Iran are making efforts to create all prerequisites for that. Thus, the two countries will try to expand the cooperation frameworks in many areas. Steps are also being taken to attract investments from Iran to Armenia and find new markets for Armenian exporters and manufacturers. 

Ambassador of Iran to Armenia Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri stated that Iran is attaching importance to the development of stable relations with its neighbors. “The East Azerbaijan is one of the economically powerful provinces of Iran. The visit of the delegation led by the Governor of the province speaks about the will of Iran to develop the economic relations with Armenia”, the Ambassador said.

He said that the Forum will help the two sides to get acquainted with each other’s economic and trade potential and give a logical development to the bilateral ties. 

In his turn Abedin Khorram said: “We are here in order to be able to further develop the bilateral relations. Our key goal is to develop the relations of the East Azerbaijan province with the Armenian side, so that as a bordering province to be able to increase that cooperation and the export volumes. He said that their goal is to contribute to raising the bilateral trade turnover to a higher level. The Governor of the province also talked about some problems existing in the customs sector, stating that efforts should be made to solve them. He expressed hope that serious achievements will be registered during the visit. “Taking into account the historical-cultural past of the two countries and their ties, let’s try to raise the relations of the countries to a high level also in the economic sector”, he stated.

Abedin Khorram stated that they also plan to enter the markets of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the European Union (EU) through Armenia.