‘Growing Trend of Iran-Syria Trade Continues’

Date: 07 May 2021 - 20:52

News ID: ۸۹۹۶۸

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Head of Iran-Syria Chamber of commerce Keyvan Kashefi has pointed to the growing trend of bilateral trade and said as Syria is pushing to reconstruct its economy in such fields as building bridges, dams, electricity infrastructure, and technical and engineering services, Iran is at the top of exporters to that country.
Kashefi added that according to the Syrian trade statistics, the country’s trade volume with China and India has remained unchanged during the past three years, but its trade volume with Iran has been steadily growing during the same period.
Regarding the high volume of Turkey’s exports to Syria which he described as an exception, the official said that though Syria has sanctioned importing goods from Turkey since there are long borders between the two countries, lots of goods are smuggled from Turkey, and the central government has still not sufficient control over those borders, Turkey’s exports to Syria amount to one billion dollars annually.
The head of the Iran-Syria Chamber of Commerce also said that the horizon of Iran-Syria trade is still much higher than its current status, reiterating that Iran needs to continue operational planning in order to witness improved exports to Syria and imports from that country, and during the past year there the planning in that respect has been satisfactory.
He spoke about the plans for sponsoring various exhibitions to inform businessmen on bilateral trade and Iran’s commerce center in Damascus which can play a very significant role.
He also said that the Iran-Syria trade volume is expected to double during the current Christian year, 2021, though sanctions have slowed this growing trend, and due to the existing conditions in Syria it economy has shrunk from the previous 30-billion annual volume down to five billion.
Kashefi said that Iran’s trade volume with Syria was 130 million dollars in 2020, which is expected to increase to 300 million dollars by the end of 2021.