Vietnam and Iran need to build on friendly diplomatic ties to expand and promote two-way trade, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said.
"Our trade ties have not developed in tandem with our political relations," Larijani told Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in a meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday.
Larijani said despite a long-standing relationship between the two countries, many areas of potential cooperation remain untapped, ICANA reported.
Pitching to Vietnamese investors, he said a national plan mapping out Iran’s development over the next five years encourages foreign investment in liquefied petroleum gas, agriculture, petrochemicals and oil and gas sectors.
Iran is also keen on closer cooperation with the Southeast Asian country in information technology, cyber-security, environmental protection and other sectors, the senior lawmaker said, vowing that his side will make every effort to facilitate investment by Vietnamese firms in Iran.
Easing of visa procedures for the two countries’ nationals to encourage tourism and setting up a direct air-link between the two sides will greatly contribute to achieving the target of two billion dollars annual bilateral trade.
Larijani also called for improving tow-way coordination in finance and banking.
Phuc, for his part, welcomed Larijani's call for broader bilateral engagement and said Vietnam's enterprises are interested in developing partnership with their Iranian counterparts. A joint business forum was to be held later in the day.
He called for regular high-level exchange visits and asked Iran to back Vietnam's membership to the UN Security Council from 2020-21.
"There is high potential for cooperation in the petrochemical, telecommunications and power sectors, which can substantially boost the level of trade between the sides," Phuc said.
The Vietnamese leader said his side welcomes Iran’s cooperation in marine transport and port construction.
He noted that the development in economic relations hinges heavily on measures to enhance cooperation between the two sides' banking industries.
"The central banks of Iran and Vietnam should strive to remove obstacles to banking relations," he said.
