TEHRAN – More than 100 Iranian businessmen active in the South African market and the African nation’s Ambassador to Tehran Ebrahim M. Saley held a meeting on Tuesday to discussed possibilities for boosting trade ties between the two countries’ private sector.

South Africa’s commercial attaché also attended the meeting which was held at Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines (TCCIM), the Mehr News Agency reported.
According to TCCIM Deputy Director for International Affairs Ali Khorram currently the bilateral trade between the two countries is $3.5 billion of which oil exports accounts for $3.3 billion.
South Africa has significantly increased its trade with Iran since 1995 when the two countries first signed oil storage agreements.
As of 2006, South Africa received 40 percent of its crude oil from Iran. Despite its friendly relationship with the United States, South Africa agreed to store 15 million barrels of Iranian oil, gaining $208 million in the initial signing, but with the potential to earn up to 50 percent of the proceeds as the oil was sold.
Oil deals grew after 1995 and broadened into greater official cooperation beyond the energy sector. South Africa also increased its bilateral trade and corporate relations with Tehran so that by August 2008, bilateral trade reached some $4 billion between the two countries.
Pretoria also recently agreed to several joint development projects in Iran, including refineries and a massive mobile phone contract for South Africa’s Mobile Telephone Network (MTN). MTN alone invested $1.5 billion in 2007 and 2008, providing cellular coverage for more than 40 percent of Iran’s population. Iran generated over $160 million of revenue for MTN in the 2008 fiscal year.
In January South African Deputy Director-General and Foreign Affairs Ambassador Jerry Matjila discussed increasing bilateral economic cooperation with Iranian Deputy Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Behrouz Alishihri during a meeting in Pretoria.
In May 2009, South African ministers participated in a large conference on foreign investment hosted in Tehran.
In June 2009, the National Iranian Petrochemical Company announced that the South African Company, Sasoul, would be involved in Iranian petrochemical projects