Iran has agreed to provide goods and services in exchange for the gas it receives from Ashgabat. This will allow the Iranian private sector to increase its participation in a number of ongoing projects in Turkmenistan.
The announcement was made by Iran’s Deputy Petroleum Minister for International Affairs Amir-Hossein Zamaniniya on July 27. The decision was taken as a result of the bilateral negotiations held between Iranian Petroleum Minister Bijan Zanganeh and Turkmen Foreign Minister Rashid Meredov, according to Azeri newspaper, Azer News.
“Turkmenistan is a reliable trade partner of Iran and there is good reason to hope that it will remain so in the future,” he noted. “Iran is ready to export products and engineering services to Turkmenistan and sign a contract worth about $1 billion with this country.”
“Iranian companies should make efforts to offer Turkmenistan quality products capable of competing with the goods of such countries as Turkey and Russia, which dominate in the Turkmen market, and thus, to play a more important role in this market,” he said. “Currently, Iranian petrochemical products differ for higher quality compared to competitors’ products. Due to this, it is necessary for Iranian companies to use their full potential in this field.”
Iran exported $973.65 million of non-oil goods to Turkmenistan and imported $113.72 million of non-oil goods from the country last year.
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