KARACHI: Reza Amiri Moghadam, Ambassador of Iran in Pakistan, said that Iran is one of the world’s top producers of petrochemical and energy sources and Pakistan is mostly dependent on imported oil and other energy sources.

This phenomenon makes Iran a very important country for Pakistan to overcome energy deficiencies through reliable and inexpensive supplies from Iran.

During a visit to FPCCI, Moghadam also highlighted that Pakistani rice is popular in Iran due to its good taste and Pakistani textiles are world-famous.

The two countries also enjoy cultural and religious bonds.

He expressed his desire to enhance people-to-people, business-to-business and chamber-to-chamber contacts with Pakistan.

We need to increase business tourism between the two countries and Iranian embassy is willing to facilitate the Pakistani business community in visas and participation into trade exhibitions and fairs in Iran.

Irfan Iqbal Sheikh, President FPCCI, has said that enhancing trade with Iran can help resolve Pakistan’s chronic trade deficit issues as Iran is our next door neighbor and exporting to Iran will be price-competitive due to negligible shipping and logistics costs due to land-based route.

Irfan Iqbal Sheikh reiterated his stance that the lack of banking channels between the two countries is the primary hurdle in increasing Pakistani exports to Iran and an effective and functional currency swap mechanism can help resolve this issue.

Shaukat Omerson, VP FPCCI, highlighted that there are a number of products and services that Pakistan can export to Iran in large numbers and rice, fruits, vegetables, value-added textiles, sports goods, surgical instruments, pharmaceuticals and IT services of Pakistan have great potential in Iran.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023