Tehran-Islamabad direct flights hopefully to start in June: Iran envoy

EghtesadOnline: Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Mehdi Honardoost says Iran and Pakistan are discussing resumption of direct flights between the capitals of the two countries and hopefully the first flight will be launched in June this year.

News ID: ۷۷۳۱۶۷

14 January 2017

Visiting the Rawalpindi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), he said the direct flights would help both countries to improve trade.

“Iran is a big market and Pakistani goods have a good reputation there. There is a big demand of Pakistani basmati rice in Iran,” he said.

Honardoost said Pakistan and Iran are culturally, historically, linguistically and religiously attached with each other, IRNA reported.

“There are tremendous opportunities to improve the trade relations between the two countries. Sanctions have now been lifted by the world powers. Pakistan can capitalize on lucrative incentives offered by Iranian government in sectors like energy, pharmaceutical, auto and information technology,” he said.

The envoy showed his government’s resolve to reactivate bilateral trade relations and said that both sides are working to finalize the Free Trade Agreement, which will help remove many barriers in bilateral trade.

“Banking officials of both countries are working hard to resume banking channels between Iran and Pakistan as the need of hour to improve bilateral trade,' he said.

He emphasized the need for improving contacts at chambers level. The Iranian ambassador said strong relations were mutually beneficial to the people of both the countries.

The RCCI president, Raja Amer Iqbal, stressed the need for enhancing the bilateral trade volume and suggested that exchange of delegation is important.

“Joint ventures in poultry, marble, pharmaceutical and information technology sectors can help both countries to increase the trade volume. Single country exhibitions can be a great source of introducing products in each other’s markets,” he said.