ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Minister of State for Finance Rana Muhammad Afzal has expressed optimism for an early resumption of banking ties between Islamabad and Tehran.
In an interview with IRNA, he said that he is giving extra focus on banking ties with Iran so that the two friendly neighbours can have better trade relations.
Certainly, Iran wants to improve relations with Pakistan, and Pakistan too is interested to improve trade relations with Iran, he added.
He said that we need to develop banking relationship, in this connection very soon we should be able to have the banks on both sides to open letters of credits and carry business.
Minister said that bilateral meetings between the two countries are taking place regularly and we want to increase trade between our two countries, meanwhile, Iran is trading with many countries.
The minister said Iran’s ambassador has informed him that sanctions do not cover many types of trade between Iran and Pakistan. So we are working on this very keenly with a focus to improve our trade ties with Iran.
He said that Pakistan is looking to encourage private banks to open branches and promote business.
Afzal added that the banking sector in Pakistan is in private hands and the government only owns one bank.
He said more business delegations exchange and more facilitation at the government level will enhance trade between the two countries. There is already good will in Pakistan.
He maintained that we have surplus food items and Pakistan has rice to export and textiles and Iran has petroleum products. Regional trade is always a better trade so we are trying to do within the permissible limits. Unfortunately, due to sanctions, our business has gone down. It is not only Iran that has suffered but Pakistan has also suffered, so we want to solve this problem, he concluded.
