During an exclusive interview with IRNA on the eve of Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting on Wednesday in Islamabad, Miftah Ismail said the government of Pakistan under Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif is ready to enhance ties with Iran in all sectors especially the bilateral trade.
He added that Pakistan had proposed during the previous government term to elevate the bilateral trade volume to 500 million dollars or Euros by trading in local currencies.
“I have asked the governor of Pakistani State Bank to talk with his Iranian counterpart as early as possible to materialize the proposal,” said the Pakistani finance minister.
He said: I think there should be more travel routes between Iran and Pakistan to facilitate trade. In Balochistan, there must be more facilities for passengers and enhanced people-to-people exchange would definitely facilitate more trade between Iran and Pakistan.
** Iran is Pakistan's first choice for gas supply
Pakistan is in dire need of gas and energy that can be easily fulfilled by Iran, Finance Minister Ismail said, adding that one major step the Pakistani government has taken is that we have increased import of electricity from Iran.
“Our minister Khurram Dastegir traveled to Iran to enhance electricity imports from Iran which is a positive development,” said the minister.
He said the gas pipeline project is quite tricky as it came under sanctions soon after it was signed. Though the sanctions were lifted after a nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 in 2015, but the US unilaterally walked away from the agreement and again imposed sanctions on Iran.
“Our petroleum minister Dr Musadik Malik is trying to import gas and the Iranian option in this regards is still on the table,” he stated..
**Trade facilitation mechanism between Iran and Pakistan is being formalized
Miftah Ismail complained that the volume of Iran-Pakistan bilateral trade is quite low, despite the fact that they share common border and can do trade through barter trade mechanism or through cash.
He said that Iran and Pakistan have strong brotherly, friendly relations, but expressed regret that trade ties are not as strong as the cultural, political and religious relations between the two nations are.
“Iran produces lots of things which Pakistan buys or could buy and vice-versa,” noted the Pakistani official, adding: “The one major agenda of the upcoming meeting of the Joint Economic Commission would be to enhance the bilateral trade between the two friendly countries.”
The minister went on to say that the main hurdle in the bilateral trade is the currency and the lack of banking relations. “We cannot open LCs in US dollar in trade with Iran and this is a major difficulty.”
“Now there is a mechanism that the central banks’ governors have figured out and in the JEC meeting this mechanism would be formalized to ease the trade,” he said.
He noted our trade with Iran should be doubled after two years, expressing confidence that if Iran and Pakistan resumed banking channel for payments, the trade between the two countries would be doubled in two years.
“Pakistan banks are not under any pressure and we can do trade with Iran in local currency,” he said.
**Iran can become part of CPEC
Ismail said that China is the biggest world market and needs energy and Iran which is one of the world’s biggest exporters of energy can fulfill China’s energy needs through Pakistan.
“We think that Iran should become part of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project. We welcome Iranian investment in Gwadar on any other energy projects under the CPEC,” said the minister.
**Pakistan committed to remove obstacles in trade with Iran
Miftah Ismail noted that Pakistan will take every measure to remove any hurdle in trade with Iran.
He said that Pakistan had opened border markets and that the major part of its Balochistan state’s trade is with Iran and Afghanistan.
“There are many markets in Quetta which export Pakistani goods to Iran and Afghanistan. All countries do trade with neighbors and there is nothing new about that. It is easier to trade with Iran for a person living in Pishin district of Balochistan than to trade with Karachi. There should be trade between border towns of Iran and Pakistan,” he said.
He went on to say that there is a lot of unofficial trading going on between Iran and Pakistan, adding that Iranian products could be seen in Pakistani shops, especially in Karachi, and there is no harm if this trade can be formalized, as the countries normally do the first trade with neighbors.
“I look forward to the day when there is more trade between Iran and Pakistan,” the minister said.
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