TEHRAN - The board of representatives of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) held their third meeting in the new tenure on Sunday during which the priorities of the Iranian economy and main programs of the ICCIMA for the new tenure were discussed.

As reported by the ICCIMA portal, in the meeting, which was chaired by ICCIMA's new Head Hossein Selahvarzi, four board members including the chairman delivered speeches and touched upon some of the important economic issues in recent months.

Speaking at the gathering, Selahvarzi pointed to the decrease in the competitiveness of Iran's export goods, especially in the Iraqi market due to the Central Bank of Iran (CBI)’s policies and said: “When buying Iranian goods, Iraqi businessmen have to change their currency at exchange offices due to sanctions. But in order to buy goods from other countries, they obtain the necessary currency from banks in the exporter country; this makes Iranian goods 15 percent more expensive to enter the Iraqi market and as a result, Iranian exporters lose their competitiveness.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, the official expressed ICCIMA’s opposition to a decision for dividing the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade to two ministries of industry and mining, and trade, noting that “This separation prevents the adoption of integrated policies regarding trade and production. Also, in case of separation, the final structure and description of the duties of this new ministry and even the ministry of industry and mining, which will remain, are not clearly known.”

He further announced ICCIMA’s complete readiness for helping the government in the process of economic diplomacy, and said: “ICCIMA, as a representative of the private sector, is ready to play a more active role in economic diplomacy by sending and receiving economic delegations to the target countries and helping the joint economic committees.”

“In this regard, a proposal to form a regional dialogue forum with neighboring countries in the Persian Gulf has been sent to the government. We are also investigating how to use the resources of the new Asian Infrastructure Bank for joint investment between the private sector and this bank,” he added.

EF/MA