Industry News Trade

Turkey Keen on Boosting Trade with Iran

Istanbul, Turkey | August 16, 2008 by D-8 Secretariat

A Turkish minister on Tuesday (12/8) called for an increase in Tehran-Ankara trade. Turkish Minister of Economy, Mehmet Simsek, made the remarks in a meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alireza Sheikh-Attar in Ankara, Iranian News Agency in Ankara said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leading a high-ranking delegation is to leave Tehran for Turkey on Thursday at the invitation of his Turkish counterpart President Abdullah Gul. Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari will also accompany the president.

According to Petroenergy Information Network (PIN), an Iranian Turkish negotiation will take place to talk about mutual cooperation within the energy sector. Turkey and Iran will probably sign oil and natural gas deals during Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Turkey.

The current volume of Iran-Turkey bilateral trade stands at $11 billion, Simsek said, expressing the hope that the figure would reach the maximum level soon. Sheikh-Attar has also declared Tehran’s readiness to further strengthen ties with the neighboring Turkey. Bilateral cooperation in the areas of trade, oil and gas, energy, banking, transportation and joint investment was also reviewed at the meeting.

Iran and Turkey have sought ways to increase cooperation, especially in the field of oil and gas along with the existing Iranian gas export contract.

Iran GDP Growth Rate 6.9%

The Central Bank of Iran has released early estimates based on which the GDP growth rate was recorded at 6.9 percent last Iranian year.
Based on the report, the country’s seasonally adjusted real Gross DomesticP (GDP) in base prices of the year 1376 (1997) increased to $50.30 billion last Iranian year (ended March 19) from the previous year’s $47.06 billion, according to Press TV.

The GDP growth rate was 6.9 percent last year compared to 6.2 percent the year before.

The CBI report says the rise is largely due to an increase in the added value in certain sectors including agriculture, housing construction, transportation, warehousing and communication, as well as social and household services.

Spending the oil money on vital sectors bolsters their added value, which is an effective policy because investments geared toward increasing GDP play a significant role in national development plans.

According to experts, a precondition for attaining the objectives outlined in Vision 2025 will be to have an annual economic growth rate of 8 percent. It is necessary to boost the efficiency of different sectors, particularly the production sector, and make widespread changes in the structures of universities, research and development centers, scientific and planning institutes, as well as state-owned owned entities.

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