Mehrdad Bazarpash, Minister of Roads and Urban Development of the Islamic Republic of Iran made the remarks on the sidelines of the meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between Iran and the UAE held in Abu Dhabi.

He said that,  "The bilateral trade between Iran and UAE currently stands now at $27 billion which is not a small number, and the UAE is Iran's second-biggest trading partner after China."

"With the activity of this commission and through the resolve of the two countries, it is expected that this number will increase to $30 billion next year," Bazrpash added.

He pointed out that, "After about 10 years, the meeting of the Joint Economic Cooperation between the two countries was held and at the beginning of it, 2 documents were signed to formalize the commission itself."

The head of Iran and UAE Joint Economic Commission further stated that a total of 22 documents have been already prepared and following the preliminary meetings to be signed between the two sides, and said, "In this meeting, various sectors of tourism, facilitation of commercial traffic, the role of each country in the North-South Corridor, the development of port activities and the increase in the number of flights were discussed."

"Development of port activities and investment of Emirati companies in Iranian ports was another important issue brought up in the meeting. Another issue was the facilitation of banking processes, which is one of the most important prerequisites for business and the demand of Iranian businessmen from the UAE to facilitate bank financial transactions, and good promises were made in this regard, and we hope to see good progress about it," the Iranian minister further said.