Azerbaijan, Baku, May 24/Trend M. Moezzi
Iran's e-commerce grew from $4 billion in 2005 to $10 billion in 2011 said the country's Minister of Industry, Mines and Trade.
Mehdi Ghazanfari made the comments as he attended an Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO) conference on e-commerce hosted by Iran on Kish Island in the Persian Gulf, Mehr news agency reports.
The minister also pointed to Iran's rapid growth of Internet users. In a little over a decade Iran's internet users have grown 145 per cent from a quarter of a million people in 2000 to 36.5 million users in 2011.
Expanding trade among ECO members will hinge on e-commerce said Mr Ghazanfari who added the ECO countries' share of global trade was $650 billion, while trade among organisation members was $40 billion and Iran's share of that was $10 billion.
Founded by Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, ECO has 10 member nations. The organization's goal is an Asian-Eurasian version of the European Union (EU), creating a single market through cooperation and shared goals. Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are other ECO members.
The ECO conference started on May 21 and will end tomorrow.