TEHRAN - Seyyed Ali Salehpour told a meeting to review investment and economic development of North Khorasan province that German exports to Iran hit 2.9 billion dollars in 2017 while Iran's exports to the country reached 500 million dollars.

Stressing the need for commissioning small companies in the country, the official said that drive force for economy of most of countries is small production units.

He also called for transfer of technology by German companies to Iran, saying,  We should take advantage of advanced technologies regarding industries, as we are lagging behind today   s world technologies.

Head of North Khorasan Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Mohammad Samadi also told the same event that currently the provincial tradesmen are doing business with 30 countries including Italy, Germany, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Myanmar, Portugal and South Africa. He further noted that the province   s exports in 2017 surged by 80 percent compared to the figure for a year earlier. During the first three months up to June 21, some 120,000 tons of goods valued at $27.070 have been exported from the province.

This year, the province has targeted exports valued at 160 million dollars, 17 percent of which has so far been materialized.

Exported items mostly include petrochemical products such as urea, melamine, ammoniac, steel products, cement, plastic products, food stuff and agricultural products.

The items were mainly exported to Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Turkey, India, UAE, Bulgaria, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Italy, Spain, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Pakistan, Russia and Germany.

North Khorasan province shares 301 kilometers of borders with Turkmenistan.