TEHRAN – Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) said on Wednesday that Italy is one of the major trade partners of Iran in the European Union and expansion of trade ties with Italy is a priority for Iran.

Gholam-Hossein Shafeie made the remarks in a meeting with Italian Ambassador to Iran Mauro Conciatori, the ICCIMA portal reported.

In the meeting, Shafeie stressed the fact that Iran and Italy are currently cooperating in almost all economic areas, adding “the future of our economic cooperation is bright and prosperous.”

He expressed his appreciation for Conciatori’s efforts in boosting the all-out ties between the two countries and said, “Even though both Iran and Italy faced U.S. sanctions constraints, but the efforts of the Iran-Italy joint chamber of commerce along with the Italian embassy led to the current developments in the economic ties.”

Conciatori for his part emphasized that the cooperation between Iran and Italy will be maintained at all levels.

Mentioning the growth of trade turnover between Iran and Italy in recent years and the interest of Italian businessmen and entrepreneurs in investing in Iran, he stressed, "We should not worry about the future of Iran-Italy economic relations."

“Despite U.S. sanctions, the two countries trade turnover is currently more than 4 billion euros” Conciatori said.

“We are currently in the process of "contemplating" to plan better future relations, and I'm sure we will have a bigger jump forward after this era”, h added.

EF/MA