Iran and Japan agreed to form a specialized taskforce to expedite economic, trade and industrial cooperation between the two countries, the IRNA news agency reported on Sunday.

The agreement was made in a meeting between Valiollah Afkhami-Rad, the director of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI), and Hirofumi Katase, the director general of Industrial Science, Technology Policy and Environment Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, in Tehran on August 29.

In the first stage, the task force is in charge of exploring the ways for boosting cooperation between Iranian and Japanese private companies as well as expansion of Iran-Japan ties in implementation of infrastructural projects.

Iran exported $33.14 million of non-oil goods to Japan in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, while imported $235.03 million of non-oil goods from the country, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
  
Iran and Japan are seeking expansion of bilateral ties in different fields of energy including petrochemical and upstream oil industries as well as transferring related technology, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh said after a meeting with Daishiro Yamagiwa, the Japanese deputy minister of economy, trade and industry, in Tehran on August 9.

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