Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottak and his Tajiki and Afghan counterparts, Hamrokhon Zaripov (c) and Rangin Dadfar Sepanta (l), in a meeting in Tajikistan in March.

Iran is genuinely interested in trilateral cooperation deals among the three Persian-speaking nations of Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Such a union, if formed in the future, will definitely enhance Iran’s regional status and create new links between Iran and Central Asia and beyond.
Forged by the common bonds of culture and language, this trilateral cooperation was recently given a ’big jump’, to quote Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, who attended a meeting with his counterparts, Hamrokhon Zaripov and Rangin Dadfar Sepanta, in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital, in March.
The three men issued a lengthy joint communiquŽ, consisting of a prelude and 12 clauses that emphasized the need to expand economic, trade, transportation, energy and cultural exchanges among the three countries, according to Asia Times.
As member states of the regional organization, the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan have framed their trilateral cooperation largely within the framework of the ECO, as a sub-category of their broader, multilateral cooperation on a regional scale.
The recent breakthrough in the long sought after trilateral cooperation with Afghanistan and Tajikistan, if carried through with meaningful implementation, actually readies Iran for SCO membership, where it has observer status, as it signals a greater degree and level of Iran’s integration in a region deemed important by the SCO.
Here, an important priority of Tehran is to create the necessary infrastructure for greater economic interaction with neighboring Afghanistan and ’near neighbor’ Tajikistan, in light of the relatively low level of trade with both countries--in 2006, Iran’s net exports to Afghanistan were barely more than $500 million, compared to $7 million in imports.
Similarly, Iran’s exports to Tajikistan for the same year stood at $128.4 million compared to $6.6 million imports from Tajikistan. This is not to mention Iran’s economic assistance to both countries, for example, free shipment of oil to Tajikistan.
As part of its effort to enhance inter-regional trade, Iran has been an enthusiastic supporter of the ECO’s vision for an ECO free-trade area by 2015, as well as ECO’s trade agreement, that seeks to lower trade duties to 15 percent on 80 percent of goods traded within eight years.
At last November’s meeting of the ECO’s council of ministers in Herat, Afghanistan, specific attention was given to building new transportation linkages and to implementing the rail and road parts of the ECO’s Transit Transport Framework Agreement.
This is an issue of interest to India as well, a participant in the project known as the North-South Corridor that aims to connect Iran’s port city of Chahbahar to points in India via Afghanistan.
For now, however, significant security, financial, political and other hurdles have slowed considerably the implementation phase of most ECO projects and it remains to be seen if the new boost in trilateral cooperation mentioned above will also boost cooperation among the ECO states as a whole--the fate of this trilateral cooperation depends to a large extent on substantive improvements in bilateral relations.

Deputy oil minister and head of National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) has underlined that the most important section of the oil industry’s technical services export is the drilling sector.
Speaking at the First National Congress of Iran’s Drilling Industry, Seifollah Jashnsaz said that compared to other NIOC subsidiaries, the drilling sector has the highest capacity for providing technical services, reported PIN.
Referring to drilling activities in Iran, he predicted that onshore drilling industry will expand by three percent while the offshore section will advance by nine percent in next few years.
Private sector involved in the drilling industry has been given incentives to take part in operations in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, he said.
On training programs of the National Iranian Drilling Company, Jashnsaz said, it could meet the demands of the Persian Gulf states.
The two-day event in Ahvaz, Khuzestan province ended on Thursday.

Iran is geographically suitable for the production of various agricultural products, and according to the World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), ranks among worlds’ top 10, producing one-third of the world’s agricultural crops.
According to IRNA, Head of Iran’s Food Industries Union, Mohammad Hosseini, made the comment at Malaysia’s 5th Halal Food Exhibition, adding, “Manufacturing Halal foodstuff in Iran has been increasing in recent decades.“
He added, “Iran produces more than 83 million tons of agricultural products annually, including 64 million tons of beans, 13 million tons of lemons, limes and oranges, world’s largest quantity of high quality saffron, as well as large amounts of pistachio, pomegranates, and various types of dates.“
Support for agriculture and self-sufficiency in the sector is high on the government’s agenda.
During the First Five-Year Economic Development Plan (1989-1994), $4.2 billion were spent in the agriculture sector. Iran’s agriculture sector grew by one percent in 1996 and 4.5 percent in 1997. The gross value of products in Iran’s agricultural sector reached $25 billion in 1997.
While 28 percent of the country’s manpower is involved in agriculture, agricultural output makes up just about 30 percent of Iran’s non-oil exports. A report of the Ministry of Industries and Mines said that more than 237 food processing industries with a capacity of 1.5 million tons a year will be commissioned in the coming years.

Iran and Turkey expect their trade volume to reach $20 billion annually in the next three years.

Global food crisis has led Iran to request two million tons of wheat, worth $1 billion, from Turkey while the latter is considering an exchange of the grain for lentils, chickpeas or rice.
According to Today’s Zaman, Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen, who visited Iran with a delegation of 120, told reporters that they took important steps during their meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki last Wednesday.
Tuzmen noted that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mottaki had emphasized Iran’s need for wheat in the meeting. “And we mentioned our need for rice. We thought perhaps we could exchange wheat for rice. They demanded not less than one million tons and a maximum of two million. I will convey this to the Ministry of Agriculture when I return to Turkey. I am leaning toward the barter option,“ he said.
The Turkish minister stated that Iran also wants to export some of the wheat it plans to import from Turkey because it had previously pledged exportation of the grain to certain countries. Iran’s annual demand for wheat is 18-20 million tons.
Tuzmen said they also discussed the difference in costs of road transportation between the two countries, a disparity stemming from the differing gasoline prices and from the different rates of transit passes from Turkey and Iran.
“This is a highly problematic issue. There is a very old regulation at work here. After the changes that Iran implemented in 2006 on road transportation, the costs of such transportation in Iran increased by 50 percent for Turkish transporters,“ he said.
Tuzmen added, “After Iran began to sell diesel fuel to Turkish transporters at higher prices we did the same for Iranian vehicles. But during our meeting I presented an offer to Ahmadinejad in which we would both decrease our costs. I think my offer will be accepted,“ stated the minister.
Tuzmen said they had also discussed railways with Iranian officials, adding that Turkey will construct a new rail line to the north of Van, an eastern province of Turkey, in order to end the transportation problem in the province stemming from Lake Van, where vehicles have to wait in long queues for ferries in order to get to the other side.
“We want to open another door for transportation. The railway project will be this door and it will cost us about $400-$500 million. We offered to construct this railway with a soft long-term loan and this offer was accepted,“ he noted.
Tuzmen said the construction investments of Turkish contractors are of great importance in terms of trade relations between Iran and Turkey.
Last Wednesday, the Iranian and Turkish officials also discussed the possibility of trading in their national currencies, i.e., rial and lira.
Under the circumstances, and given the annual eight billion dollar trade between the two countries, Turkey could pay the price of imported commodities from Iran in new lira and Iran could pay for its imported commodities in rial.
Iran, which has been substituting euro and yen with dollar since 2007 has welcomed the Turkish offer. The two sides have agreed to take necessary measures to this end in the coming months.
Iran and Turkey expect their trade volume to reach $20 billion annually in the next three years.
In short, the two neighbors need to establish a balance of trade as Tehran and Ankara have great potential for cooperation in the energy sector, motor vehicle manufacturing and the weaving industry.
They can also meet the growing needs of regional countries through close economic cooperation. In this respect, their private sectors should also be informed about the advantages of investing in Iran and Turkey.

Presence of US occupying forces in Iraq is the main concern of Iranian businessmen willing to invest in that country, said Seyyed Ahmad Alavi, deputy custodian of Astan-e Qods Razavi, the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), the eighth Imam of the infallible household of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Speaking in a press conference, he said that in view of the religious commonalities with Iraqi people, Iranian traders are keen to invest in that country, IRNA reported.
He hoped that the establishment of joint chamber of commerce in Mashhad and the steps of the Iraqi government to provide security to Iranian traders and industrialist would pave the way for further expansion of bilateral commercial cooperation.
Vision 2025 has stipulated expansion of relations with Islamic countries including Iraq, he noted.
Meanwhile, Iran’s commercial attachŽ in Baghdad, Mehdi Nejabatnia said that 20 agents will be responsible for supplying Iranian commodities to Iraqi consumers. He noted that Iran’s exports to Iraq are a quarter and one-third of those of Turkey and Syria respectively.
In a bid to remove the obstacles in the way of improving bilateral commercial relations, eight cooperation documents were signed between the two countries during President Ahmadinejad’s visit to Iraq in March, he noted.

Technical and Soil Mechanics Lab Company and Islamic Republic of Iran Airlines (Homa) have been introduced to Privatization Organization in line of Article 44 of the Constitution which calls for large-scale privatization, said deputy minister of road and transportation for planning affairs.
On the latest status of Tehran-Mashhad high-speed railway project, Hamid Behbahani told Fars new agency that given the special emphasis of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his visit to Khorasan Razavi province, preliminary steps on the project are underway.
The project will be implemented in several phases, he said. The capacity of the proposed train is to be assessed in the first phase given that 20 million pilgrims visit Mashhad each year, the official explained. Then, the project would be implemented on a BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis, he elaborated.
According to him, the first phase of the project is awaiting the five-million dollar guarantee that should be made by the company in charge of investing and assessing the project.
The budget of the ministry has increased by over 16 trillion rials in the year to March 2009 compared to the year earlier, he said, expressing the hope that the extra money will be used to complete the semi-finished projects by March 2009.

The Steel Taskforce should start its activities as soon as possible to create a balance in domestic market and increase production, said the head of the Iranian Steel Manufacturers Association.
Although one month has passed since the formation of the taskforce, Taqi Bahrami said that no practical measure has been undertaken yet, Fars news agency wrote.
The price of steel bars is rising rapidly in global markets, he said.
Given the new capacities created in the private sector, the official said that if steel mills get their supply of raw materials, domestic demand would be met and steel exports would increase.
As per planning, domestic steel output should hit 28 million tons by the end of Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010).
The private sector which has so far produced 10 million tons of steel annually, operates at only 30 percent of its capacity, he complained.
Bahrami urged the government to pave the way for industrialists to borrow from Oil Stabilization Fund to import raw materials for steel plants.

According to latest report by Majlis Research Center, sugar imports went up significantly in the past few months, MNA wrote.
According to the center, the country produced five million and six million tons of sugar from beet and sugarcane respectively in the past few years.
Sugar production has also been on the rise during the same period, reaching 1.2 million and 1.25 million tons in 2005 and 2006 respectively.
According to the center’s latest report, the country’s per capita sugar consumption is around 30 kilogram for a population of 70 million plus. The total consumption is just about 2.1 million tons.
Therefore, the country only needs to import around 900,000 tons of sugar per annum. However, in 2006, it imported 2.48 million tons, of which some one million tons (41 percent) were imported by the state-run trading companies!
The center said the country imported three times more than it could consume during the period largely due to the huge drop in import subsidies from 150 percent to just about 10 percent in 2006.
The practice increased sugar supply and decreased price and demand.