TEHRAN — Mohammad Ali Dehghan Dehnavi, head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (PMO), has outlined three core priorities for the organization this year: monitoring, facilitation, and proactive engagement.

Speaking at the second National Foreign Trade Think Tank meeting in Isfahan, Dehnavi acknowledged that the current year has been difficult for foreign trade, particularly due to war and regional developments, but stressed that these conditions should not lead to despair or halted activity.

On monitoring, he called for real-time awareness of trade conditions, identifying bottlenecks at borders, and analyzing export trends down to the product and company level—not merely comparing customs statistics. On facilitation, he emphasized resolving practical obstacles facing the private sector, including currency obligations, goods clearance delays, and rising logistics costs. He warned that if transport costs make exports economically unviable, exporters will exit markets, leading to lost revenue and lost market share.

On proactive engagement, Dehnavi urged moving beyond reactive responses to anticipate opportunities and threats in export markets. He also stressed the importance of using provincial chambers of commerce and ensuring trade missions produce concrete agreements and export growth.

EF/MA