According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, Mehdi Ghazanfari today at the 7th Annual Conference on Resistance Economics entitled "Regional Trade; "Strategic priority", one of the valuable actions of the Institute of Resistance Economics is to hold annual conferences on resistance economics, and praised the topic chosen for this year's conference, said: "In the face of sanctions and international pressure, the importance of regional trade development increases."

Submit 70 papers to the Scientific Committee of the Regional Trade Conference

The former Minister of Industry added: "After the call for papers received from January 1, out of more than 70 papers submitted to the Secretariat of the Seventh Annual Conference on Resistance Economics, 36 papers were approved in the first stage and entered the final review process." Of this amount, 28 articles were finally approved by the Scientific Committee and obtained the required quorum.

Ghazanfari continued: "There has been a lot of talk about regional trade for a long time, but in recent years we have not had significant success in this area." Creating a dialogue on this issue and establishing a connection between the scientific, operational and commercial elites and policy makers is one of the main goals of this conference. Proceedings of the conference are usually made available to officials, which can be used to improve the state of foreign trade.

Holding 6 pre-sessions to review the dimensions of regional trade

He added: "Six sessions have been held to date as a prelude to the main conference, a brief report of which will be presented." The first meeting was held on the importance of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, emphasizing the need for Iran to move rapidly in this direction. The most important issue at the second meeting was regional trade opportunities in the form of the Silk Road. A plan put forward by China in which China seeks to establish itself as the world's first economic power. Our country has made very little use of this plan, which should be worked on in this area.

The former Minister of Mining Industry and Trade continued: In the third meeting, the issue of non-sanctioned financial exchanges was raised. One of the major pressures of sanctions is the issue of money transfers. New methods of financial exchange can be used to reduce the pressure of these sanctions and to conduct regional trade. In the fourth and fifth sessions, "Trade with Iraq and Syria" and "Trade with Afghanistan and Pakistan" and the capacities of these two areas were discussed, respectively. We have a lot of potential in the case of Iraq, which has not been activated yet, and in the case of Syria, nothing much has actually been done. Martyr Soleimani always emphasized the importance of economic work in the axis of resistance and even established an economic office in Syria. Trade with these countries should be facilitated. The sixth meeting was the regional trade of electricity, in which effective measures can be taken by recognizing the capacities, strengthening the infrastructure and creating the right mechanisms for regional cooperation.

Iran's trade with neighboring countries is far below capacity

Ghazanfari continued: "Paying attention to Iran's trade statistics with neighboring countries and the region shows that we are far behind in this regard and have not used our capacities." Pakistan imports $ 50 billion to $ 60 billion a year. Of these 50 to 60 billion shares, we have only $ 500 million. This statistic shows the failure of our business in working with Pakistan. In the case of Iraq in 2019, it was $ 60 billion. Our share of this trade is only $ 6 billion. Unofficial figures, however, can be as high as $ 10 billion. Afghanistan imports $ 7 billion. Iran's share of this trade is $ 1.2 billion. We are the first exporter to Afghanistan but still have a small share of the Afghan market. Therefore, we only supply 10 to 20% of the region's needs, which is very small considering Iran's geographical location and capabilities.

He added: "By examining the statistics related to 1392 to 1398, it can be seen that from 1396 until today, our exports to neighboring countries have increased compared to other countries." That means we have moved to regional trade. But on the other hand, our total exports to countries around the world have decreased. For example, in 1396, our export volume to neighboring countries was $ 23 billion, and the same amount of extra-regional exports, which reached a total of $ 46 billion. But this amount reached its maximum in 1393 and 1394 and has decreased to 99. Regarding imports, we can say that we have had less imports from our neighbors than from others. In the best case, in 1393, 53 and 1394, it was 54 billion dollars and in the following years it has decreased to 43 billion dollars. Adding these numbers, we can see that the volume of our trade has been declining in recent years.

Iran's regional trade capacity is more than double the status quo

A member of the scientific committee of the annual conference of the resistance economy, emphasizing that in the development of trade, attention should be paid to imports, said: "Imports, which I agree with and can be the drivers of the country's development, are the import of capital goods and raw materials." Importing luxury and consumer goods is wrong and destructive. Imports must support production. Imports should be made in areas that can be the driving force behind production.

He said: "In the conditions of sanctions, one of the effective solutions in maintaining the employment of the country is export." Countries in the region have many opportunities in terms of national cultural and linguistic proximity that can be used. Many of our failures in regional trade are due to our internal problems, such as flawed customs trends, low standards of our products, and so on. By removing barriers, Iran's regional trade can easily be doubled. Turkey has already surpassed us in the field of regional trade, and if the necessary measures are not taken, other countries will be able to compete with us in the future.