TURKISH-IRANIAN TRADE VOLUME UP 86 P.C.

ISTANBUL (A.A) - 16.09.2010 - Turkey's state minister for foreign trade said on Thursday that the trade volume between Turkey and Iran was up 86 percent in the first seven months of 2010.

Minister Zafer Caglayan underlined importance of the rise in Turkish-Iranian trade volume in the first seven months of 2010.

"It seems that we will reach the trade volume we had before the 2009 global crisis in 2011," Caglayan said during Turkish-Iranian Business Forum in Istanbul.

Caglayan said the trade volume was 2.3 billion USD in 2002, and it reached 11 billion USD in 2008.

"However, it fell to 5.5 billion USD in 2009 due to global crisis and decline in oil and natural gas prices in the world," he said.

Caglayan said initiatives were under way to raise the trade volume between the two countries to 30 billion USD in the following five years.

Minister Caglayan said Turkey's exports to Iran was up 40 percent, but Turkey had only 2 billion USD of share in Iran's 68.5 billion USD of imports in 2008.

Caglayan said Iran made more than 8 billion USD of its overall exports of 100 billion USD to Turkey.

Therefore, trade volume between the two countries should be balanced as soon as possible, he said.

Caglayan said Turkey had ratified the border trade agreement and sent it to Iran, however border trade could not be launched as Iran had not approved the agreement yet.

Initiatives on establishment of a joint industrial zone were about to be completed, he also said.