TEHRAN - Iran will host economy ministers from more than 40 African countries at the second Iran-Africa International Summit set to be held later this month, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) said.

The deputy head of the international businesses promotion office of the TPO pointed to the significance of trade with African states and added that African countries are home to numerous unknown trade opportunities and will play a leading role in global trade in the future.

Africa enjoys untapped resources that have not so far been introduced, Mohammad Sadegh Ghannadzadeh said, adding that China and Turkey have increased the level of their trade with this continent.

He further noted that the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisii have placed special emphasis on expanding trade and economic relations with African states.

It is a matter of regret to say that Iran’s trade with African countries has fallen into oblivion in the past four decades, so, the organization is trying to take effective steps to boost trade with Africa, he noted, Mehr news agency reported.

Identifying and introducing the export potentials of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been cited as one of the main goals of the 2nd International Iran-Africa Summit, Ghannadzadeh further stated.

He pointed out that specialized business-to-business (B2B) meetings and various expert-level discussion panels including specialized steel industries, petrochemical, and agricultural panels will be held on the sidelines of the summit.

Africa is home to one-fifth of the world’s population and holds about 30 percent of the mineral reserves, 12 percent of oil, eight percent of the natural gas, and 50 percent of the world’s gold reserves.

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