TEHRAN– Iran-South Korea joint economic committee meeting will be held in Tehran in February after a five-year interval, the Shana news agency reported.

To attend the joint economic committee, a large-scale South Korean trade delegation would travel to Tehran, next month.

South Korea’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy released a statement on January 21, saying now that sanctions against the Islamic Republic are removed, South Korea seeks to expand economic cooperation with Iran.

Seoul is also aiming to set up a system, so that the two countries’ transactions can be carried out using the U.S. dollar.

In the mentioned statement, South Korean Trade Ministry announced that it would provide financial and production-related support to local companies wanting to enter the Iranian market.

In this regard, the ministry would particularly provide help to companies in the information technology, culture, and food sectors.

According to the statement, Korea Trade Insurance Corporation (K-sure) plans to lower insurance coverage rates for companies entering Iran.

Meanwhile, Export-Import Bank of South Korea (Korea Eximbank) announced that it has set up a €5 billion loan to the local companies, interested to start activity in Iran’s market.

The South Korean Trade Ministry forecasted that its annual trade with Iran would rise to $17 billion, as it was before 2011, from the current $6 billion.

South Korea is one of the biggest buyers of Iranian crude oil.

In September 2015, Korea Eximbank said it could support Korean firms looking to secure a slice of $31 billion of gas and $25 billion of oil projects being offered by Iran this year. 

Iran is currently South Korea’s third-biggest export market in the Middle East. 

South Korea was the 13th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.        


Iran exported $429.61 million of non-oil goods to South Korea and imported $4.309 billion of non-oil goods from the country.    

SJ/MA