TEHRAN - Iran and Armenia have serious potential for expanding their bilateral economic ties and also bolstering relations with the Eurasian Economic Union, Armenian Minister of Economy Karen Chshmaritian stated.

The official made the statement in a press conference after his yesterday meeting with Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Va’ezi in Tehran.

The Armenian minister said: “In my today’s meeting with Mr. Va’ezi, we stressed Iran-Armenia cooperation in the field of information technology and I think that there is high potentiality for cooperation in this area.”

The Armenian government intends to open the country’s doors for economic cooperation with other countries, especially with Iran, he highlighted.

“Today, we [Iran and Armenia] are starting with making serious agreements on economic cooperation and I hope that these agreements will lead to some fruitful results in the future”, the minister noted.

He expressed hope that the old friendship between Iran and Armenia will lead to an expanded economic cooperation between the two countries.

Addressing the same conference, Va’ezi said: “Given that Armenia is one of the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union, we discussed the ways to export our products to these countries.”

The official mentioned telecommunications sector as well as research and development activities as the areas in which the two countries have the potential to increase bilateral ties.

Answering to a question by the Tehran Times about the role of Armenia in the promotion of Iran’s trade with the Eurasian Economic Union, the minister explained: “The cost for the export of products to Russia and other Eurasian states is high for Iran, in a way that the imports of Iranian products are entitled to a tariff of over 20 percent in those countries.”

It makes competition difficult for the Iranian private sector, he noted.

“Russian market is a very large one and given that there are many transit routes between Iran and Russia, through roads, railways and sea routes, we could imagine this market as one of our major export destinations. In this regard, I discussed the issue with the Armenian minister and it was decided that Armenia reduces the tariff for importing products from Iran and also to lower the tariff for transit of Iranian goods to the Eurasian countries, especially Russia”, the official added.

Armenia was the 23rd largest importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Septemebr 22), according to the Iran Customs Administration.  

Iran exported $63.847 million of non-oil goods to Armenia and imported $5.409 million of non-oil goods from the country in the six-month period.  

It is while Armenia was the 27th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, with importing $120.047 million of non-oil goods from Iran and exporting $19.37 million of non-oil products to the country.