TEHRAN – Iran’s capital Tehran hosted an Iran-Belarus business forum at Saadabad Palace Complex on Tuesday evening, the portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) reported.

The forum was attended by senior officials from the two sides including First Vice President of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mohammad Mokhber and Prime Minister of the Republic of Belarus Roman Golovchenko.

Organized by ICCIMA jointly with the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BelCCI), the business forum was also attended by Iranian Minister of Industry, Mining and Trade Reza Fatemi-Amin, Chairman of the BelCCI Mikhael Miatlikov, and ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie, as well as heads and representatives of more than 120 Belarusian and Iranian companies.

Forming working groups to remove trade barriers

Speaking at the forum, ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie called for the formation of joint special working groups in order to identify existing challenges and problems in the way of the trade between the two countries and also to assess the feasibility of joint commercial projects.

According to Shafeie, empowering the two countries’ small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), strengthening banking and insurance cooperation, defining new joint projects, developing and facilitating the issuance of visas for businessmen and tourists, creating the necessary infrastructure for developing economic relations, especially in the commercial, industrial and technical sectors are among the measures that the governments of the two countries can take for boosting mutual trade.

The official also underlined the establishment of a joint trade committee between the chambers of Iran and Belarus as an effective measure for developing trade ties.

Iran to open $100m credit line for Belarusian traders

Further in the forum, Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi-Amin described Belarus as an important country from an industrial point of view and considered the economies of Iran and Belarus to be complementary to each other.

Pointing out that several business delegations have been exchanged between the two countries over the last four months, Fatemi-Amin said: "Fortunately, good agreements have been made so far to improve the financial channels between Iran and Belarus, and we are witnessing improvement in the logistics sector as well."

At the end of his speech, Fatemi-Amin announced the opening of a $100-million credit line for Belarusian traders who are interested in buying Iranian products.

Iran, Belarus should provide trade, investment infrastructure

Elsewhere in the event, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko said there are numerous fields for cooperation between Iran and Belarus, and considered it necessary to reach an agreement to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.

Golovchenko further emphasized that the governments of the two countries should provide an appropriate environment for businessmen to operate.

EF/MA