TEHRAN- During a meeting between Reza Fatemi-Amin, Iran’s industry, mining and trade minister, and Saleh bin Said Masan, Oman’s deputy minister of commerce, industry and investment, in Tehran, the Omani side called on Iran to set up factories and production lines in his country.

The meeting was also participated by Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Alireza Peyman-Pak, the TPO portal reported on Saturday.

In this meeting, the Omani official mentioned his visit to Iranian industrial complexes and factories in Tehran and Isfahan and said: "During these visits, we realized that Iran has made great progress, and for this reason, we want Iranian factories, including pharmaceuticals and home appliances factories, to invest in Oman.”

He also announced his country’s readiness for providing tariff and tax facilities and supplying land for the presence of Iranian factories and setting up production lines in that country.

During the meeting, the parties discussed and exchanged opinions regarding the solutions for the development of trade between the two countries, joint investments, clearance of goods, preferential trade agreement and the presence of Iranian companies and factories in Oman.

Fatemi-Amin, for his part, pointed to the readiness of Iran and Iranian companies and factories to invest in Oman and added: “Now one of the home appliance manufacturing factories is ready to build a production line in Oman, but we suggest that this production line be built with the joint investment of Omani and Iranian businessmen.”

During another meeting between the Omani deputy minister and the TPO head on Wednesday, Peyman-Pak said trade between Iran and Oman increased by 70 percent in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22), as compared to the same period last year.

He said boosting trade with Oman is one of the business priorities of the Iranian government.

Masan for his part called Iran a brotherly country and added: “In previous meetings we talked about how to solve trade problems between the two countries [and thanks to the recent developments] today we are discussing how to develop trade.”

Back in August, Peyman-Pak had said that the value of Iran’s non-oil export to Oman can be boosted to one billion dollars by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2023).

For this purpose, a workshop entitled "Iran-Oman Trade" was held in Tehran on August 3 with the participation of senior officials from both sides including the head of TPO, the director-general of TPO’s West Asian department, the deputy ambassador of Oman to Tehran, Iran’s commercial attaché to Oman, chairman of Oman Chamber of Commerce, head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) and representatives of Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA) and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) as well as Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI).

During the meeting, Peyman-Pak pointed to the situation of Iran’s trade with the Sultanate of Oman and said that Iran’s trade with Oman in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended March 20) registered a 99 percent growth as compared to the preceding year due to the special attention of 13th government under President Raisi for boosting trade with neighboring countries.

Last year, the trade between Iran and Oman reached $1.336 billion, indicating a growth of 57 percent compared to the preceding year.

Back in July, the Iran-Oman Joint Chamber of Commerce signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MOU) with TPO and Iran's Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO) to facilitate the export of non-oil goods to Oman and to increase the volume of trade between the two countries.

According to Peyman-Pak, the main goal of this memorandum is to facilitate the participation of the country's manufacturers and production units located in industrial parks in Oman’s specialized exhibitions and to increase the presence of Iranian products in the Omani market.

MA/MA