YEREVAN. – Armenia needs to have a competitive economy to develop trade with Iran.

Representative of the US-based “Policy Forum Armenia” (PFA) NGO, David Grigorian, stated the above-said at Monday’s discussion entitled “Prospects for Armenian-Iranian Strategic Partnership.”

Grigorian reflected on Armenia’s expectations from the anticipated lifting of sanctions against Iran, and noted that Iran’s potential needs to be grasped, and there are enormous expectations from this country.

“But I believe that we [i.e. Armenia] actually don’t have a lot of time,” stressed the PFA official. “Armenia should be able to make use of the transit opportunity.”

He also stated that it is indispensable to be competitive.

“The volume of trade between Iran and Armenia is small; less than $50 million,” added David Grigorian. “This is a result of that low competitiveness.”

In his view, however, the last hope is for Armenia to have access to ports in Iran thus entering the global market.