TEHRAN - In a Thursday meeting between Eamon O’Shaughnessy, New Zealand Ambassador to Iran and Aliakbar Farazi, Deputy for International Affairs of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA), the two sides stressed expansion of economic collaboration, the public relationships department of the ICCIMA reported.

“Economic cooperation between the two countries has slumped down in recent years, but we are hopeful of expansion of bilateral trade in view of the positive changes in perspective,” Farazi was quoted as saying in the meeting.
According to Farazi, although west-imposed sanctions have left negative impacts on the country, it has helped us come to better understanding of our potentials and capabilities and overcome hurdles successfully, too.

Eamon O’Shaughnessy, for his part, stated that considering the changed international attitude to Iran, time is ripe for key decisions to be made to boost bilateral trade activities through wiping out banking and financial restrictions.
Eamon O’Shaughnessy further said his country’s foreign minister, heading a trade delegation, is scheduled to call on Iran in the upcoming November and called for face-to-face communication between Iranian and New Zealand investors and traders.
New Zealand exported around $163 million of commodities to Iran last year. The vast bulk of this was dairy and animal products, which accounted for almost $147 million of what was exported.
The next largest category is wool or animal hair at $7.1 million and behind that fish products at $6.7 million.

Iran is a growing market for a range of New Zealand products and services, including electronics, software systems, geothermal expertise, CNG technology, air traffic control services and fisheries resource management services.
AK/