Fars News Agency , Iran
May 23 2009

Official Hails Huge Increase in Iran-Armenia Trade Exchanges

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iran-Armenia trade balance has undergone a ten-fold
increase during 1998-2008, a senior Iranian trade official announced
on Saturday.

"While the trade balance between Iran and Armenia stayed at $11.8
million in 1998, it increased to $119.61 million in 2008," Director
General of the Europe and America Trade Office of the Trade Promotion
Organization of Iran (TPO) Abd al-Hamid Assadian said.

He said that Iran’s exports to Armenia stood at $37 million a decade
ago, but it reached $141.18 million last year.

Pointing to the measures adopted by TPO to promote trade exchanges
with Armenia, Assadian reiterated that setting up of Iranian stores in
Yerevan, formation of a joint chamber of commerce, launch of operation
by the Iranian traders’ union and operation of Iran’s Mellat bank in
Yerevan were among the major steps taken in this regard.

Earlier in April Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan visited Tehran and
discussed with senior Iranian officials ways of expanding bilateral
relations.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei
then told Sargsyan that he viewed relations between Iran and Armenia
as "very good", and stressed the need for the further bolstering of
ties between the two neighboring states.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress