In an interview with IRNA, Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir said that the business community of Pakistan perceives Iran as an important trading partner of Pakistan in the region.
He said Iran and Pakistan are brotherly Islamic countries and have been enjoying amicable business relations since a long time ago.
“I admit that the advantages like commonality of religion and traditional values, geographical connectivity and complementarities of our economies have not been materialized in true perspective,’ he noted.
The businessman said the analysis of bilateral trade in last five years reveals that the trade between our two countries is growing at a very slow pace. “Current volume of bilateral trade during calendar year 2017 registered 358 million dollars,” noted.
Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir added that Pakistan’s exports to Iran accounted for 36 million dollars against the imports of 323 million dollasr in the same period.
He said Pakistan’s farm products are qualifying world standard and quality particularly our Kinnow is the best and has potential to export to Iran. Similarly Pakistan’s rank 5th in the world in terms of rice exports.
“It is in the interests of both countries to expand trade and move from PTA to FTA to tap maximum benefits from the available potential,” he viewed.
The trade activist went on to say that tariffs and non-tariff measures are major obstacles in the way of trade augmentation between our two countries.
He said all the four traditional transportation modes are available for bilateral trade between Pakistan and Iran i.e. Air, Sea, Road and Rail but unfortunately, none of these modes of transportation are efficiently and economically utilized at present.
He added the Business Community has been emphasizing that the transportation facilities must be improved for the enhancement of economic relations. “The transportation through land routes and railways need to be improved to properly facilitate the exporters of both the sides,” said Syed Mazhar Ali Nasir.
“Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul train is one of the best ways for improving not only bilateral trade but ECO region as well,” he viewed.
He said actually, various decisions regarding the expansion of trade and economic relations between Pakistan and Iran have been taken up previously but due to the instable and unpredictable international and regional political processes, these have remained slow.
“Energy is another area where there are many opportunities, shown in various ways such as through Private Power Producer for small and medium sized hydel, alternative energy scalable platforms, biogas, lead-acid batteries (which can be exported to regional markets as well), and energy conservation aids, e.g. energy saver lights, PVC windows, door frames, rubbers etc,” the businessman said.
He added chemical industry of Pakistan offers attractive benefits and Iran has expertise in it. ‘Therefore, joint venture would enhance economic growth of the two countries.’
“CPEC is a mega project that offers investment participation. Hence, I formally invite the Iranian businessmen to avail the burning opportunities,” said the FPCCI Vice President.