Iran's ambassador to Azerbaijan announced the establishment of a joint bank in Tehran in the near future for facilitating banking operations and developing investment and trade activities between the two neighboring countries.
"To overcome banking problems with the adjacent country, several measures are to be taken by Iran such as barter deals and currency swap agreements to eliminate the US dollar as the intermediary currency and use local currencies instead," ISNA quoted Mohsen Pakaeen as saying in a trade conference held in Tehran on Sunday focusing on Iraq, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.
He said Iran can export food, agricultural products and construction materials to Azerbaijan.
"Currently, bilateral non-oil trade with Azerbaijan stands at $500 million in value, but if tourism revenue is added, the figure would exceed $2 billion," he said.
To boost exports to Azerbaijan, the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development should consider cutting export tariffs.
The two-day conference aims to present Iran's export advantages and list the requirements of export destinations, define new standards for domestic goods and services, adopting a competitive approach, present practical strategies for facilitating exports of goods and services, discuss ways of having a more effective presence in international expos and study solutions to transportation, banking, customs and insurance issues.
