TEHRAN – The First Session of Iran-Malaysia Joint Economic Committee ended in Kuala Lumpur on Friday, MNA reported yesterday.

The committee chaired by Iran’s Minister of Commerce Masud Mir-Kazemi and Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz, discussed various fields of economic cooperation including, joint investments in technical, engineering and medical services, communications, roads and transportation sectors as well as the banking and customs cooperation.

During the meeting, the Iranian minister offered a number of investment avenues in Iran open to the investors from both the private and public sectors of the Southeast Asian nation.

Referring to Iran’s achievements in various scientific, technical, engineering, industrial, service and production sectors, Mir-Kazemi said that in light of the agreements reached on preferential tariff during the D-8 Summit in Indonesia, Iran is ready to expand its economic relations with Malaysia.

For her part, Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister expressed her country’s interest in the expansion of economic and trade ties with Iran and called for boosting Iran’s exports to Kuala Lumpur.

Iran and Malaysia’s trade exchange is currently estimated at over $700 million.

Malaysia keen to develop ties with Iran

Malaysia is looking to collaborate with Iran in the resource based industries, electrical and electronics, engineering as well as in the information communications technology sector, the Malaysian news agency Bernama quoted Rafidah Aziz as saying.

"These are the areas that Malaysia would like to have joint ventures with Iranian companies not only to cater to the local market but also the ASEAN region as it has already developed strength in the areas," she told reporters after the Thursday meeting.

Iran is Malaysia's fifth largest trading partner among the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) member countries.

Among the Malaysian companies operating in Iran are Petronas in oil and gas exploration, Proton in car sales, Amona Group in property development projects and Celcom in the telecommunications sector, she said.

Malaysian investments in Iran from 2000 to 2005 amounted to $466 million.

At the meeting, Malaysia proposed to Iran to consider accepting the certificate of origin endorsed by the Malaysian Chambers of Commerce for exports to Iran.

Rafidah said request was also made to Iran to lower the cost of endorsing export documents by the Iranian embassy which was currently too high.

The minister said Malaysia also called on Iran to use the remaining $41.2 million of the $50 million credit facility extended under the palm oil credit payment arrangement (POCPA), to import more palm oil from Malaysia.

Among other issues discussed at the meeting was the use of Malaysian rubber seismic bearings to protect buildings in Iran from earthquake, and on Iran adopting the CODEX International Standard on ash content for cocoa products.

Discussions also centered on the development of South Tehran's outering road project by a Malaysian company, and the establishment of a distribution centre in Bandar Abbas, Iran.

Rafidah said officials from both the countries had agreed to follow-up on the proposals discussed at the meeting.

She said the progress on these proposals would be reviewed in the next meeting of the Joint Trade Committee, scheduled to be held in Iran.