TEHRAN - Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA) held a virtual Iran-India trade conference titled “Development of Iran-India trade relations: trade and investment opportunities” on Saturday, TCCIMA portal announced.

The conference which focused on exploring ways of developing economic relations between the two countries and solving the existing problems in the way of mutual trade was organized in collaboration with India’s PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

As reported, the virtual conference was attended by senior officials from both sides including representatives of the Indian ambassador to Tehran and Iranian Ambassador to India, as well as the heads of TCCIMA and PHD Chamber of Commerce.

During the webinar, existing challenges and problems in the way of trade between the two countries were addressed, and private-sector representatives raised their issues and concerns to be followed up through the two sides’ chambers of commerce.

Speaking at the meeting, TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari said holding such events is an indication of the interest and willingness of the two countries' private sectors to develop bilateral trade and economic relations.

He further noted that unfortunately some of the challenges and problems in trade relations between the two countries have been intensified in recent years.

Khansari stressed that trade relations between Iran and India currently require the efforts of both sides to be developed.

The two sides need to reach solutions and strategies to facilitate trade between the two countries, he said, adding: "The most important problem in the development of bilateral trade is the transfer of money and the problems caused by the lack of banking relations; So far, several rounds of negotiations have been held to establish bank branches, as well as activating the rial-rupee payment mechanism, which unfortunately have not been realized yet.”

The official stressed that the current situation shows that such negotiations need to be resumed and the TCCIMA is ready to provide all the technical assistance and expertise needed to the negotiating teams to establish a trade mechanism with the local currencies of the two countries.

"Also, Iran and India need to set up a credit line to support their priority export sectors in order to reduce the complexities of the trade bureaucracy," Khansari added.

Further in the conference, the president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India referred to the 116-year history of this chamber, saying that 150,000 enterprises consisting of big, medium, and small industries are members of this Indian private sector institution.

Pradeep Multani further mentioned the two countries deep historical relations and said: “India-Iran relations have been pursued with meaningful interactions for thousands of years. Until 1947, the two countries shared a common border and several common features in their language, culture, and traditions.”

The trade between Iran and India has been following an upward trend over the past two years, despite the U.S. sanctions.

According to TCCIMA data, the trade between the two countries increased over 74 percent in the first nine months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-December 21, 2021) as compared to the same period in the previous year.

India stood at sixth place among the Islamic Republic’s top export destinations in the mentioned period, while in terms of imports the country occupied the seventh place among Iran’s top sources of imports.

EF/MA