Iranian bank in Pakistan in the pipeline

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has welcomed the establishment of an Iranian bank in Pakistan aimed at easing bilateral trade and economic ties.

“Finance and commerce ministries in Pakistan have been ordered to pave the way for a private Iranian bank to establish a branch in Pakistan,” Gilani said in a meeting with Iran’s Commerce Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari on Thursday in Islamabad.

Gilani stressed Islamabad’s readiness to expand trade with Iran and said, “Pakistan’s government is determined to increase the value of its commercial transactions with Iran from USD 1 billion to USD 5 billion,” IRINN reported.

The Pakistani premier added that expanding trade and commerce ties with neighboring countries including Iran is one of the priorities of Islamabad.

Ghazanfari, for his part, described the lack of Iranian banks in Pakistan as one of the main problems faced by the private sector for investing in the South Asian country.

If Pakistan agrees with the establishment of a private Iranian bank in this country, the move will pave the way for developing commerce between the two neighbors, the Iranian minister added.

Iran and Pakistan have signed a deal under which Tehran has agreed to deliver 21.2 million cubic meters (750 million cubic feet) of natural gas per day to Pakistan from 2014.

Ghazanfari also announced Iranian private companies’ readiness to reconstruct the infrastructures of Pakistan’s flood-stricken regions.

Iran’s Red Crescent Society announced in October that a total of 26 convoys weighing 5,309 tons were dispatched by Iranian governmental and NGO relief organizations to Pakistan via land, sea and air.

More than 150 Iranian rescue workers have helped Pakistan’s flood victims and nearly 100,000 flood-stricken Pakistanis have been sheltered in 14,000 IRCS tents.