TEHRAN — The Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (TTCIMA) and the Austrian Steiermark State signed a memorandum of understanding in Tehran on Tuesday to reinforce cooperation in the field of economy.

The Minister for Economy, Innovation and Finance of Steiermark, Christian Buchmann, led a delegation of around 50 businessmen from the private sector to Tehran.

Buchmann signed the agreement during a meeting with the chairman of TTCIMA, Masoud Khansari.

On the sidelines of the meeting, Khansari said ""After the implementation of the nuclear agreement and the lifting of sanctions, Iran is seeking to maintain it economic relations and establish long-term ties with other countries.”

Statistics show that the bilateral trade fell to 218 million dollars in 2014, which was the lowest in recent years, he said, adding that the sanctions lift would greatly help restore economic ties.

“Iran needs to attract 250 billion dollars to realize its economic growth objectives by 2021. Austrian companies can play a great part to meet the need.”

*** Rouhani scheduled to travel to Austria soon

Buchmann, for his part, said that the Austrian president has already paid a visit to Iran and the Iranian president is scheduled to travel to Austria in the near future. Such visits will pave the way for expanding political relations and will act as a platform for enhancing economic relations, he added.

In September 2015, Austrian President Heinz Fischer at the head of a 240-member delegation traveled to Iran. 

During a meeting between Fischer and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani, it was announced that the two countries have agreed to work on drafting a roadmap for their bilateral trade in 2020, with an emphasis on infrastructure, energy, industry, transport, as well as science and culture.