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Need to Utilize Opportunities to Expand Ties With Neighbors

Raisi tasked his first deputy to form a committee to identify obstacles to trade and make plans for their swift removal
Need to Utilize Opportunities to Expand Ties With Neighbors
Need to Utilize Opportunities to Expand Ties With Neighbors

President Ebrahim Raisi stressed the need to use the existing opportunities and the potential of the private sector to boost trade ties with regional countries. 
Speaking at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, he tasked his first deputy to form a committee of relevant authorities to identify obstacles to trade and make plans for their removal in the shortest possible time. 
He also urged all state organizations to be persistent and follow up their projects. 
“Problems cannot be solved just by giving orders, but these orders must result in serious action,” he said, President.ir reported. 
The president highlighted the importance of managing liquidity and directing it toward production, adding that the creation of liquidity without management has adverse economic consequences.  
Since his inauguration last year, Raisi has prioritized neighboring countries as most suitable targets for foreign trade. 
Over the past Iranian year (which ended on March 20), the country’s trade with its 15 neighbors increased by 23% in terms of weight and 43% in terms of value, according to Alireza Moqaddasi, director general of the Customs Administration. 
“In year 1400, we experienced a 12% increase in weight and 29% in value of goods exported to neighbors while imports from these countries saw a 68% rise in terms of weight and 60% in terms of value,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA. 
Iraq, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan and Pakistan were the top five destinations for Iranian goods, according to Moqaddasi. 
The UAE, Turkey, Russia, Iraq and Oman also supplied the most imported goods, he said. 

 

 

Required Coordination

Mehdi Toghyani, a member of the Majlis Economic Commission, also hailed Raisi administration’s determination to develop economic diplomacy, saying the ministries of foreign affairs, economy, industries and agriculture are on the front line of this movement. 
“Coordination among these ministries and their focus on joint measures is essential,” he said.
A set of measures must be determined for each organization to map out their path toward economic diplomacy and help achieve outcomes tangible for the people, he added. 
The foreign ministry can play a particular role along this line, according to the lawmaker. 
Facilitating foreign trade and alleviating the country’s economic problems must be the criteria for selection of ambassadors and assessment of their embassies’ performance, he said. 
“Ambassadors must not be only experts on political affairs, but must also be active in the area of economy,” Toghyani said. 
He said Iran has the economic capacity to double or triple its non-oil trade, which amounts to $30 billion at present, provided that relevant entities work in coordination with each other. 
 

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