Hojjatollah Abdolmaleki stated that cooperation documents have been inked with six countries for setting up joint free zones.
Speaking in an interview with IRNA, he noted that giant strides have been taken in the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi to make the balance of trade at free zones positive.
He put the country's total non-oil exports in the free- and special economic zones in 2022 at about $18 billion.
Iran is one of the countries that has designed a perfect model for the launch of joint free zones, he said.
Abdolmaleki further pointed out that priority has been given to the neighboring states for launching joint free zones, stressing that cooperating with countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Russia and China has been put on the agenda of the organization.