Iran
and Thailand are planning to raise the worth of their annual bilateral
trade to $one billion, Iran’s commercial attaché to Thailand
Mohammad-Ali Pakseresht announced.
Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai heading a 22-strong
delegation arrived in Tehran on January 22 to take part in the ninth
meeting of Iran-Thailand Joint Economic Commission, according to the
IRNA news agency. Pakseresht referred to the establishment of Thai units
in Iran’s free zones for the production and distribution of Thailand’s
products in Iran and also exporting them to the other Middle East
countries as an area for trade cooperation between the two countries;
saying that this idea has been welcomed by the Thai businessmen. He
mentioned establishment of knowledge-based companies as the other area
for bilateral cooperation and said Iran can also export technical and
engineering services to Thailand. Thailand exported $168 million of
products to Iran in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year
(March 21-Septemebr 22, 2015), a 31.5 percent fall compared to the same
period of time in the previous year. It is while Iran’s exports of
products to Thailand rose by 384 percent to $90.6 million in the
six-month period. Steel and chemical products, vegetable, medicine and
medical equipments were the main items Iran exported to Thailand, wood
and wooden products, canned fruits and car parts were the major products
Iran imported from the country in the first half of this Iranian year.
Thailand was the 23rd leading importer of Iran’s non-oil goods in the
past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to
Iran’s Customs Administration. Iran exported $162.973 million of non-oil
goods to Thailand and imported $208.957 million of non-oil products
from the country during the past year.