Iranian and Indonesian officials during Iran-Indonesia 11th economic cooperation meeting, which was held in Tehran, called for promotion of bilateral banking, business and investment relations, with the Iranian side complaining about a drastic decline in bilateral trade.
The meeting was held between Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Va’ezi and Indonesian Coordinating Minister for the Economy Sofyan Djalil.
“The value of trade between Iran and Indonesia has declined to $450 million from $2 billion in 2010 when the last Iran-Indonesia economic cooperation meeting was held,” Va’ezi was quoted by IRNA as saying.
Pointing to the areas of current cooperation between the two countries such as paper, tire and petrochemical industries, the Iranian minister said the cooperation can extend to include areas such as road construction, launching joint power plants and refineries.
For his part, the Indonesian official said: “Iran is a growing economy which has access to abundant oil resources, which makes trade with Iran a significant opportunity for Indonesia.”
Calling for establishment of direct flights between Tehran and Jakarta, Djalil said: “We are resolved to expand trade ties with Iran.”
