TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) hosted an Iran-Brazil business forum in Tehran, the ICCIMA portal reported.

The business forum was attended by senior officials from the two sides including the ICCIMA Head Samad Hassanzadeh and Vice-President of Brazil Geraldo Alckmin.

Speaking in this event, Hassanzadeh said the capacities of Iran's economy in the fields of medical, energy, petrochemical, mining, food and agricultural industries, and technical and engineering services should be used to develop cooperation with Brazil.

“Iran is interested in developing economic relations with friendly and neighboring countries, and the government is trying to enable the country’s economic operators to benefit from such connection and economic relations,” the official said.

"Iran's economy has capacities in various fields and we hope that businessmen and economic operators of the two sides have a coherent plan and cooperate to take advantage of such capacities," he added.

Referring to the trade relations between Iran and Brazil, he stated: “The lack of free and preferential trade agreements between Iran and Brazil is one of the most important obstacles to the development of economic relations between the two countries, and we hope that this obstacle will be removed as soon as possible.”

The head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce pointed to the potential fields for economic cooperation between Iran and Brazil and stated that medical and pharmaceutical sectors, renewable energies, oil, gas and petrochemical, mining, automobile industry, food and agricultural industry, and technical and engineering services are among the fields that the private sectors of the two countries can cooperate in.

“Strengthening these cooperations requires the development of bilateral relations,” he stressed.

Prior to the business forum, Hassanzadeh had met with Alckmin on Wednesday.

In that meeting. the ICCIMA head said that the governments of Iran and Brazil should consider measures to solve the monetary and banking problems between the two countries.

“Another obstacle to the development of economic relations between the two countries is the problems of money transfer and banking relations, which the governments of Iran and Brazil must eliminate this problem as soon as possible with their own measures,” he noted.

Referring to the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two countries for easing the export and import of agricultural products between the two sides, he continued: “Despite the signing of this memorandum, unfortunately it has not been implemented in the last 10 years and the businessmen of both sides have not been able to benefit from it.”

Hassanzadeh further considered the membership of Iran and Brazil in BRICS as a very suitable capacity for the development of economic cooperation between the two countries and said: "Unfortunately, the two countries have not been able to make much use of this opportunity."

Exchanging business delegations between Iran and Brazil can increase the level of economic relations through raising awareness about the potentials and fields of cooperation, he said.

The official invited the head of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce to visit Iran with a business delegation and said: “Considering Iran's capabilities in the fields of medical and pharmaceutical, renewable energies, oil, gas and petrochemicals, automobile industries, food and agricultural industries, and technical and engineering services, there are suitable fields for joint cooperation.”

In this meeting, Alckmin stated that he has a mission from the President of Brazil to take the necessary measures to strengthen the relations between the two countries as much as possible.

EF/MA