Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail on Wednesday said that Pakistan’s government was ready to enhance relations with Iran in all areas, especially bilateral trade.
In an interview with the Iranian News Agency (Irna) ahead of the Joint Economic Commission (JEC) meeting, the minister welcomed Pak-Iran cooperation in energy and trade, saying that the government was determined to strengthen ties with the Islamic republic in all sectors.
The previous government, he said, had proposed to increase the bilateral trade volume up to $500 million by trading in local currencies. He asked the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) governor to talk with his Iranian counterpart as early as possible to implement the proposal.
Ismail suggested the opening of more travel routes to facilitate trade between the two countries and called for providing more facilities for passengers in Balochistan as enhanced people-to-people exchanges would definitely help promote trade.
“Pakistan is in dire need of gas and energy that can be easily provided by Iran. Our minister Khurram Dastgir travelled to Iran to enhance electricity imports from Iran, which is a positive development,” he said.
The gas pipeline project came under sanctions soon after an agreement was signed. Though the sanctions were lifted after a nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers in 2015, the US unilaterally walked away from the agreement and imposed sanctions on Iran again, the finance minister pointed out.
“The government is trying to import gas and the Iranian option in this regard is still on the table,” he stated. The minister regretted that despite the fact that the two countries shared a common border and could trade through a barter mechanism or in cash, the volume of Pak-Iran bilateral trade was quite low.
He said currency and the lack of banking relations were the main hurdles in the way of bilateral trade as Letters of Credit could not be opened in US dollar for trade with Iran.
“Central bank governors of both sides have figured out a mechanism to streamline trade, which will be formalised in the JEC meeting.”
Published in The Express Tribune, August 18th, 2022.
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