TEHRAN – Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) has held a meeting with private sector representatives and the country’s economic officials to explore areas for expanding trade relations with Saudi Arabia, the TPO portal reported.

In this meeting, Mohammad-Sadegh Ghanadzadeh, TPO’s deputy head for International Business Promotion, emphasized the development of trade relations with Saudi Arabia and removing obstacles in this field, saying: “Considering that relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have resumed after about 10 years, it is necessary to make specific planning to boost economic relations with the kingdom.”

Referring to the initial agreements with the Saudi embassy, he said: “In the initial meetings, we came to the conclusion that based on a professional framework and model, the process of developing commercial and economic relations between the two countries should proceed step by step.”

According to the official, in this regard, in the first stage, and considering that the two countries economic operators have lost touch for about 10 years, it is necessary to provide more familiarity and understanding of the commercial and economic capacities of the two countries.

Therefore, it has been decided to hold a joint economic and commercial meeting between Iran and Saudi Arabia in Tehran in the near future, and business operators and private companies active in various fields are going to attend this gathering, Ghanadzadeh said.

On October 23, TPO head hosted a meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Tehran to explore ways of expanding economic relations between the two sides.

In this meeting, which was organized by the Iran-Saudi Arabia Investment Fund for the development of job opportunities, Mehdi Zeyghami and Abdullah bin Saud al-Anzi discussed planning to start and develop business relations between the two countries.

As reported, the two sides welcomed the idea of exchanging business delegations between Iran and Saudi Arabia and emphasized the need to actively participate in each other’s exhibitions.

Speaking at the meeting, Zeyghami expressed hope for the development of trade relations between the two countries and stressed the importance of boosting trade interactions between the two sides in the field of new and high-tech technologies.

“Considering Saudi Arabia’s future plans and the investments of this country in new technologies, trade in the field of such technologies can benefit both countries,” the official said.

The TPO head also expressed his interest in the presence of Iranian companies in the health, food industry, and petrochemical exhibitions of Saudi Arabia and requested the ambassador of this country to make preparations for the presence of Iran in the form of a pavilion in these exhibitions.

Al-Anzi for his part welcomed Zeyghami’s suggestions and said: “Regarding the proposal to attend Saudi exhibitions, the preparations for this will be provided by exchanging the list of companies.”

EF/MA