Tehran, Nov. 14 (TNS): The value of trade between Iran and Pakistan stood at near $1.2 billion in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2017) increasing from $861 million in its previous year and the figure is planned to increase also in the current year, ‘Tehran Times’ reported on Tuesday.
While the two countries’ officials have set a target of $5 billion bilateral trade by 2021, achieving this goal faces some hurdles especially when it comes to trade between the businessmen.
A delegation of some Iranian businessmen from different sectors have recently visited Expo Pakistan 2017, which was held from November 9 to 12 at Karachi Expo Center, in a bid to find Pakistani partners and also explain their problems in the way of business with Pakistan for the Pakistani commerce officials during some meetings on the sidelines of the expo.
During the exhibition, the Tehran Times has conducted some interviews with a number of businesspeople from the both sides to take a comprehensive view about the barriers they are facing in the way of bilateral trade.
Most of them mentioned lack of banking channel as the main hurdle while there are also some other barriers such as those related to visa issuance.
Iranian delegates say that receiving visa from Pakistan’s embassy in Tehran has become more difficult recently and also duration of stay has been reduced when issuing the visas.
The following is text of the interviews with two of the businesspersons.
Behjat Nasseri, an Iranian-Pakistani woman conducting exports and imports between the two countries for some 8-9 years, mentioned delay in customs clearance as the main barrier from the both sides although she said the problem is more with the Iranian side due to the more formalities and also because there are more holidays in Iran making more delay in the clearance process.
She said the reason that Iran is lagging behind the other countries in supplying the Pakistani needs is the absence of LC, and as the other countries can open LC they can export big consignments.
So, if the banking problem is solved many problems will be removed, she stressed.
“Iran and Pakistan are two neighbors working with each other since the old time. There are many cultural affinities between them even in the language and if we provide easier.
