December 24, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 19, 1423

ISLAMABAD, Dec 23: Iranian Chamber of Commerce has asked for establishment of joint chamber and joint venture companies with Pakistan aimed at increasing the bilateral trade between the two countries.

The proposal, among others was moved by the visiting delegation of Iranian Chamber of Commerce in a meeting with the Commerce Minister, Humayun Akhtar on Monday.

According to an official announcement, the president of the Iranian Chamber, Aliaghi Khamoosh said, “We are looking for long-term economic cooperation and relations with the Pakistani investors.

For this purpose, the president said that we would arrange a catalogue show and added the Iranian traders were interested in the areas of spare parts, chemicals, machine tools, agriculture products and ceramics.

The commerce minister Humayun Akhtar stressed the need of strong trade relations between Pakistan and Iran.

“Pakistan and Iran have close historical and geographical ties, however, unfortunately these have not been translated into commercial and trade relations and now we could set a stage and provide a structure for strong relations in future,” said the minister.

The leader of the delegation sought help of Pakistani authorities for entry into World Trade Organization (WTO).

“We want to benefit from the experience of Pakistan, as it has been the member of WTO since long,” the Iranian president of chamber said.

He also demanded in reduction in the tariff and cooperation in banking sector.

Responding to the demands of the delegation, additional secretary, commerce, Khalid Saeed said that the idea of joint chamber and companies would usher into a new era of trade relations between the two brotherly countries.

He said, “we are ready to hold workshops and to send our experts to Iran for training Iranian business community about WTO issues.” He said Pakistan has already in the lowered its tariff to maximum 25 per cent in the budget 2002.