Iran, Pakistan boost plan 10 in trade

Iran and Pakistan have decided to undertake a ten-fold trade boost and expansion of economic relations in a big way.The key element of their business relations is the fact that the share a common border and a low-cost land route, located along the Straits of Hurmoz. The new Iran-Pakistan cooperation plans include launching a joint airline, speeding up supply of Iranian natural gas and electricity to Pakistan, opening of bank branches in each other's country, and building and upgrading rail, road and air links. Pakistan has asked Iran to implement the agreement on international road transportation of passengers and goods in order to provide access to Pakistani trucks to Turkey, Central Asia and Russia via Iran. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani in his Tehran meeting with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged him to "start up-gradation of rail, road and air links between the two countries," which will also help connect Iran and Pakistan with the rest of Asia, and Persian Gulf-Middle East. Mohammad Reza Rahimi, First Vice-President of Iran, meeting with Gilani said, "Today Iran and Pakistan are moving hand in hand to attain their specific goals, and we can link the Far East to South Asia, Africa and Europe. We can take our first step in the Middle East and a second step in intercontinental transition," into Europe. The two countries have decided to push their present trade level from $1.2 billion a year to $10 billion annually. Now the trade balance is heavily in Iran's favor. The current Iranian exports to Pakistan are $1 billion. Pakistani exports to Iran are just $200 million a year. Pakistan mainly exports to Iran rice and fresh fruits, and will like to import also fresh and frozen meat, furniture and textiles. Iran exports petroleum, oils and lubricants, besides chemicals and dry fruits. Ahmadinejad informed Gilani, "Iran is keen to import food items like wheat, vegetables and fruit to begin with." "Iran and Pakistan will explore ways to enhance the current volume of trade to $4 billion by 2014," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi proposed at Iran-Pakistan Joint Economic Commission (IPJEC), which concluded in Islamabad, just before Gilani met with Ahmadinejad in Tehran. Ahmadinejad and Gilani in their meeting at Tehran endorsed the proposals, adopted by IPJEC to upgrade the present Preferential Trade Agreement into a full-fledged Free Trade Agreement. Gilani asked Ahmadinejad, "completion of the under-construction Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project and import by Pakistan of 1,000 MW electricity from Iran should be expedited as Pakistan is facing acute energy shortage, which is hampering the pace of growth of its economy."