Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Iran and Azerbaijan are considering to involve private sectors from both countries to contribute to the expansion of trade ties between the two neighbors.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology of Iran Mahmoud Vaezi, who is on an official visit to Baku to discuss expansion of bilateral ties, said that industry and engineering services from both countries are among the sectors that are of priority for cooperation.

“Agriculture and commerce as well as health sectors are also proper fields for cooperation between the two friendly countries,” Vaezi told Trend on the sidelines of a ceremony for inking a number of deals between companies of the two countries.

Predicting that the ties between the two brotherly countries will be closer in the near future, he vowed support for private sector.

Iran is one of the main trade partners of Azerbaijan, and currently about 439 companies with Iranian capital are operating in the country.

The trade turnover between Iran and Azerbaijan has increased by 53 percent in the first three months of the current year.

Meanwhile, Azerbaijan’s State Customs Committee reported that the country's export to Iran almost doubled to $14.4 million in 1Q16 year-to-year, while imports increased from $19.4 million in 1Q15 to $27 million in 1Q16.

Vaezi further said that a major part of issues agreed between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, have been materialized over the past two months.

President Aliyev concluded his visit to Iran in late February, which took place on the invitation of Hassan Rouhani. The high-level official visit resulted in conclusion of documents covering various areas of cooperation between Tehran and Baku.

Azerbaijan and Iran, the two strategic partners and two neighboring countries with historically close links, enjoy cooperation in various fields.

After the western sanctions were lifted from Iran, it has repeatedly expressed intention to improve trade with neighboring Azerbaijan in a bid to make up for the recent decline in trade turnover between the two countries.

Cooperation in the framework of North-South transport corridor and designing a railway bridge over the Astarachay are a very important fact in the development of economic cooperation in transportation, tourism and trade sectors.

Experts claim that during the past two years relations between the two countries are developing rapidly and have already reached the level of strategic partnership.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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