Senior Official Underlines Need for Boosting Iran-Syria Trade Cooperation

A senior Iranian trade official said that the economic exchanges between Tehran and Damascus can grow 10 fold given the two countries' potentials and friendly ties.

"At present, the value of Iran's exports to Syria is less than $500mln and the level of exchanges can be increased up to $5bln," Mohammad Holakou, a senior member of the Presiding Board of Iran-Syria Joint Chamber of Commerce, said on Sunday.

He also stressed the need for proper planning to increase the role of Iranian companies in reconstruction of Syria, and said $420bln is needed to reconstruct the war-torn country and given Iran's capabilities and possibilities, it can attract over half of this money.

The volume of trade between Iran and Syria in the first 5 months of the current local calendar year has increased by 25% in comparison with the corresponding period in the last year.

Iran-Syria commercial relations have increased by 25% in the 5-month period between March 21 and August 22, which shows the efforts of traders from both sides are fruiting good results, Secretary of the Joint Economic Commission of Iran and Syria Mohammad Danayeefard said in September, during the meeting of the Joint Economic Commission of the two countries at the headquarters of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA).

Also last month, Governor of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Abdolnasser Hemmati, in a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Hazem Karfoul in Tehran, pledged to expedite efforts for establishing a joint bank that could help the two allied countries deepen their trade and economic relations.

The report, which came out after a meeting between Hemmati and Karfoul, said the two sides had agreed to execute banking agreements reached between the two in the recent past.

“Iran-Syria economic relations have entered a new phase and recent banking deals are an important message for companies and a serious step for expansion of exchanges between trades and businesses of the two countries,” said Hemmati during the meeting.