TEHRAN- Iran and Thailand are planning to raise the worth of their annual bilateral trade to $one billion, Iran’s commercial attaché to Thailand Mohammad-Ali Pakseresht announced.

Thai Foreign Affairs Minister Don Pramudwinai heading a 22-strong delegation arrived in Tehran on January 22 to take part in the ninth meeting of Iran-Thailand Joint Economic Commission, according to the IRNA news agency.Pakseresht referred to the establishment of Thai units in Iran’s free zones for the production and distribution of Thailand’s products in Iran and also exporting them to the other Middle East countries as an area for trade cooperation between the two countries; saying that this idea has been welcomed by the Thai businessmen.He mentioned establishment of knowledge-based companies as the other area for bilateral cooperation and said Iran can also export technical and engineering services to Thailand.Thailand exported $168 million of products to Iran in the first half of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-Septemebr 22, 2015), a 31.5 percent fall compared to the same period of time in the previous year.It is while Iran’s exports of products to Thailand rose by 384 percent to $90.6 million in the six-month period.Steel and chemical products, vegetable, medicine and medical equipments were the main items Iran exported to Thailand, wood and wooden products, canned fruits and car parts were the major products Iran imported from the country in the first half of this Iranian year.Thailand was the 23rd leading importer of Iran’s non-oil goods in the past Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to Iran’s Customs Administration.Iran exported $162.973 million of non-oil goods to Thailand and imported $208.957 million of non-oil products from the country during the past year.MA