[caption id="attachment_155102" align="alignright" width="193"] Iran's President Hassan Rouhani arrived in Tehran from Turkmenistan visit on March 11, 2015.[/caption]

TEHRAN, Mar. 12 (MNA) � Iranian President has said Tehran and Ashgabat seek to raise the total value of their economic exchanges from the existing $3.7 billion to $60 billion within the next 10 years.





Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was on a visit of Iran's northeastern neighbor Turkmenistan at the top of a high-ranking political, economic, and cultural delegation, left Ashgabat for Tehran yesterday at the end of his official two-day visit during which he signed 17 cooperation documents.


President Rouhani on Wednesday said Tehran and Ashgabat have decided to increase the total value of their economic exchanges from the existing $3.7 billion to $60 billion in a ten-year period.


During his visit to Turkmenistan, Rouhani and his counterpart planned to raise the value of their trade exchange through Iran to Southern ports from 2 million tons to 10 million tons and also to facilitate the issuance of visas for entrepreneurs.


Rouhani, while pointing to the key role of entrepreneurs, businessmen and investors in the development of economic cooperation, said easier commuting for Iranian and Turkmen entrepreneurs and investors to export their goods and services to the neighboring countries is an important issue on which we held a meeting with entrepreneurs and businessmen of the two countries in Ashgabat to discuss the issue.


Rouhani also highlighted the two countries� determination to accelerate the construction and activation of the South-North corridor from the Sea of Oman and Iran to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in order to serve the interests of all regional countries.


During Rouhani�s visit to Turkmenistan, the two countries signed 17 cooperation agreements in political, economic and cultural areas as well as cooperation on environment and fight against terrorism.


Pointing to the discussions on the subject of energy exchange between the two countries, Rouhani said Tehran seeks to import natural gas and electricity from Ashgabat and export technical and engineering services to the Central Asian country.


Rouhani also appreciated Turkmenistan for backing Tehran for its nuclear program and said the two countries share common views on regional and international developments.


By Mehr News Agency