TEHRAN- Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafeie and the visiting Syrian Minister of Economy and Foreign Trade Adib Mayaleh and Syrian Prime Minister Imad Khamis in a Tuesday meeting conferred on improvement of bilateral economic relations.

During the meeting, the senior officials investigated the increasing role of Iranian private sector in reconstruction projects in Syria, establishing joint commercial and trade committees in future, holding permanent fairgrounds, as well as dispatching trade delegations to the other side’s country.

Khamis, visiting Iran heading a high-ranking delegation, noted that bilateral economic ties between Iran and Syria have not grown in parallel with those political ones and it is crucial to remove barriers on the way to improve such relations.

Mayaleh, for his part, underlined that mutual economic relations should not be restricted merely to trade and commercial ones and cooperation should be commenced on industrial projects, too. He, in addition, voiced his government’s readiness for providing Iranian companies with all kinds of facilities to start collaborations with Syrians.

On Tuesday, Tehran and Damascus signed five memorandums of understanding for economic cooperation including one on construction of oil and gas storage facilities and terminals in Syria by Iran.

The MOUs also set the stage for cooperation on operation of mobile phones, cattle husbandry and other agricultural fields.

They were signed by the two countries’ economy ministers at the presence of Iran’s First Vice-President Es’haq Jahangiri and Khamis.

HJ/MA