TEHRAN- Participation of Iranian companies has noticeably increased in the national and international exhibitions in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21) which is a sign of thriving production in the country, according to the managing director of Iran International Exhibitions Company.

Speaking in a press conference held at the place of Tehran Permanent International Fairground on Tuesday, Bahman Hosseinzadeh said: “This year has been named as the year of “Pickup in Production” by the Supreme Leader and to materialize this objective we have supporting domestic production on top of our agenda”.

Putting the number of Iranian participating companies at near 20,000, the official said that to support production by these companies, a system has been set up that makes access to the information of their products possible not only during their participation in the exhibitions but also during the whole year. such things help them increase their sales.

Hosseinzadeh further mentioned three major objectives of his company as active presence in the international exhibitions with focus on the exhibits of the neighboring countries, holding national exhibitions benefitting from the most modern technology, and creating all necessary infrastructures and removing the barriers.

Holding exhibitions a major approach for expansion of exports

Elsewhere in his remarks, the managing director of Iran International Exhibitions Company referred to the significance of boosting the country’s exports of products and reiterated that holding exhibitions is a major approach in this due.

Iran’s Five-Year National Development Plan (2016-2021) has envisaged an export growth of 21.7 percent and holding exhibition both inside and outside the country plays some significant role to this end, he noted.

Underlining the importance of benefitting from the 400-million population markets of the neighboring countries for expansion of exports, Hosseinzadeh said to materialize the objective of more non-oil export to the regional countries his company has defined an especial plan for holding different exhibitions.

“As most of our neighbors are some major importers of commodities we should benefit from this opportunity to boost our exports”, he added.

“We have also negotiations underway with other countries for example Eurasian countries and they are wiling for cooperation”, the official said.

 Supporting startups, knowledge-based companies

Hosseinzadeh further mentioned that his company’s supports to the startups and knowledge-based companies has resulted in flourishing of domestic production.

“We allocate one salon to these companies in every exhibition and this approach is fortunately supported by the related officials”, he added.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official said “There are already 150-200 exhibition organizing companies in the country being supported by us.”

In addition to Tehran Permanent International Fairground there are 31 exhibition centers, mainly in the capital cities of the country, and Iran International Exhibitions Company has the responsibility of policy making, he added.

Iran on top of exhibition holders in region

Over 600 exhibitions are annually held in Iran and the planned figure for Tehran Permanent International Fairground in this year is 90 exhibitions that over 40 percent of them have been already held, Hosseinzadeh informed.

The official further said that holding high number of exhibitions is a specification of the countries like Germany that has some strong economy and underlined that Iran holds the highest number of exhibitions in the region.

“We have at least 10 foreign delegations in each exhibition that their presence leads to signing contracts with Iranian exhibitors”, he stated.

“Recently, we have also negotiated with the Exports Guarantee Fund of Iran to take the advantage of existing potential for holding exhibitions outside the country”, he added.

The managing director of Iran International Exhibitions Company further referred to the recent opening of a representative office of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) at Tehran Permanent International Fairgrounds as a very fruitful measure.

The office was set up in order to facilitate custom operations for exhibitors and participants of international exhibitions in the country and is aimed to facilitate customs services and commodity clearance for the exhibitors.

“The [representative] office has been launched in accordance with the existing customs conventions in order to encourage the presence of foreign companies in these exhibitions and their cooperation with Iranian companies,” Hosseinzadeh has previously said.

“The office provides important services to companies intending to import technology into Iran, and in the face of the U.S. sanctions this step can have a significant impact on developing the country’s industry,” he added.