Iran eyes generating $4 trillion of annual income in India: Official
EghtesadOnline: Enhancement of Iran business engagement in India to generate an annual income of four trillion dollars is a major goal Tehran is following to achieve, an Iranian official at Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said on Tuesday.
'Iranian and Indian businessmen can be pioneers in developing the economic diplomacy between Tehran and New Delhi,' Bahman Eshqi, Secretary General of TCCIMA said at a trade meeting in the Iranian capital.
Addressing a business forum attended by Iranian and Indian traders and businessmen, Eshqi said that Iran and India managed to maintain ties even in the sanctions era, IRNA reported.
Anti-Iran sanctions were lifted in January, 2016.
'Today, India is seeking to attract foreign investments and apparently no other country in the vicinity of India is more capable than Iran to serve as a source of investment for the nation,' the official added.
He went on to say that trade exchanges between the two countries is to a large extent oil-based.
'India is the world's second biggest customer of the Iranian oil,' Eshqi said.
As the second most populous country in the world and the seventh largest by area, India is in need of energy to develop its economy, the trade official said.
Iran can easily and securely meet the energy needs of the country, he added.
Experts are of the view that Iran and India can capitalize on the Chabahar joint development project as well as the North-South Corridor to boost the volume of trade exchanges between the two nations.
North–South Transport Corridor is a sea, rail, and road route expected to facilitate and boost exchange of goods between India, Russia, Iran, Europe and Central Asia.