TEHRAN- Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (TCCIMA) and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-council (CCPIT Beijing) signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to expand trade cooperation, IBNA reported.

As reported, the MOU was inked by TCCIMA Chairman Mahmoud Najafi-Arab and CCPIT Beijing Chairman Guo Huaigang during a meeting of TCCIMA trade delegation with Guo Huaigang in Beijing, during which suggestions were made for the development of bilateral cooperation.

Addressing the mentioned meeting, Guo Huaigang pointed to the relations between China and Iran and said: “The relations between China and Iran have a very long and old history, and fortunately, in the field of economy and trade, the relations between the two countries have expanded year by year to the point that it is more than 10 years that China has been Iran's first trade partner.”

He said China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-council (CCPIT Beijing) is the biggest office of this council in the whole of China. This office operates in the fields of facilitating trade and investment, helping to familiarize with commercial and international laws and regulations, holding meetings and exhibitions and bilateral exchanges with foreign counterparts.

“China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Beijing Sub-council (CCPIT Beijing) is considered as the foreign trade information bank in Beijing and we are happy to sign a cooperation memorandum with the Tehran Chamber of Commerce today; an event that can make our members and you get to know each other and exchange information between you and us to expand the economic relations of the two countries”, he further reiterated.

Addressing the same meeting, the chairman of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (TCCIMA) said; “We in the Tehran Chamber are interested in developing economic relations with CCPIT Beijing”, adding: “Tehran is a city of 14 million people and has many similarities with Beijing. About half of the country's gross domestic product is related to companies based in Tehran. and the Tehran Chamber of Commerce is the largest chamber in Iran, where more than 60 percent of Iran's entrepreneurs in the field of foreign trade, who are active in the fields of commerce, industry, mining, and agriculture, are members of the Tehran Chamber.”

Pointing out that he has traveled to China many times due to his specialized field of activity, which is the pharmaceutical industry, Najafi-Arab said: “The slope of economic growth and development changes in China in the past few decades has been very tangible and amazing for me”, adding: “The value of trade between Iran and China, excluding oil and gas, was 33 billion dollars last year, and we are very interested in developing our relations with China, and Tehran Chamber of Commerce and CCPIT Beijing can play a key role in this due.”

He further invited CCPIT Beijing Chairman Guo Huaigang to visit Tehran.

It should be mentioned that this meeting was held on the sidelines of the TCCIMA delegation visiting China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

Running from November 5 to 10, the 7th CIIE attracted 3,496 exhibitors from 129 countries and regions. It also set a new record with 297 Fortune Global 500 companies and industry leaders attending the event.

Some Iranian high-ranking officials, from government and private sector, have traveled to Shanghai to visit the CIIE and evaluate the country's needs in various sectors as well as the export potential of Iranian companies in order to develop exports, in addition to examine the existing obstacles in the path of Iranian companies' exports to China, in interaction with Chinese officials and companies, and hold consultations to resolve them.

Najafi-Arab, who traveled to Shanghai on the head of an Iranian trade delegation, met with some entrepreneurs of the private and state-run sectors of China as well as Iranian businessmen living in eastern China in two different meetings upon arriving in Shanghai to attend the CIIE, and discussed with the Chinese sides the conditions and fields of economic relations development, with the focus of attracting investment in projects in the field of renewable energy, processing and food industries, agricultural products, medicine and medical equipment, housing construction, etc.

As reported by the TCCIMA Public Relations Department, Mohsen Bakhtiar, Iran's ambassador to China, Ali Mohammadi, Iran's consul general in Shanghai, and Mohammad-Ali Dehghan Dehnavi, the head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), were also present in these meetings, and discussed the challenges facing the development of Iran-China relations by private sector entrepreneurs.

In these meetings, the TCCIMA head announced the readiness of the Tehran Chamber to host trade delegations from China in various fields of production and trade, and emphasized the need for the two sides to get to know each other as much as possible about the capabilities and capacities of the two countries in meeting the needs and also joint investments.

Addressing the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s pavilion in the CIIE, which was also participated by the TPO head and Iran’s ambassador to China, Najafi-Arab said: “This huge commercial event provides a valuable opportunity to introduce the export capacities and capabilities of Iran in various industrial and agricultural fields and to strengthen the economic and commercial relations between Iran and China.”

Pointing out that Iran and China are big trade partners in the region, he said: “Last year, the bilateral trade, excluding oil export, between the two countries reached about 33 billion dollars. This cooperation continues to grow through trade development in various fields including mining, petrochemicals, food, agriculture and new technologies. The figures show the high capacity of the two countries to expand cooperation, but the relations between the two countries can be developed far beyond this. We should use these capacities optimally by increasing delegation exchanges and developing joint projects and carry out commercial and industrial exchanges on a wider level.”

Stating that prominent Chinese companies from the state-run and private sectors have been and are participating in Iran's oil and gas development projects, Najafi-Arab considered this as an indication of China's serious desire to invest in Iran's important economic sectors, and said: “Creating new fields of cooperation in the areas of clean energy, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, joint production of electric cars, development of digital infrastructure and specialized tourism are among the priorities that can greatly contribute to the development of bilateral relations, and we, as the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, are ready and want to raise cooperation in these fields to a new level.”

The head of the Tehran Chamber added: “In order to strengthen these ties, we propose to create joint economic zones in the form of multilateral consortia, so that by providing tax and customs incentives, new investments will be provided and the level of bilateral cooperation will be increased.”

MA

Photo: TCCIMA Chairman Mahmoud Najafi-Arab (R) and CCPIT Beijing Chairman Guo Huaigang