ICCIMA to Host Meeting With China's New Envoy

EghtesadOnline: Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture is scheduled to hold a meeting on Tuesday to introduce China’s new ambassador to Iran Chang Hua to representatives of Iranian private sector.

News ID: ۷۸۵۱۱۶

10 December 2019

Arranged by Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, the meeting will start at 10 a.m. local time at the ICCIMA headquarters in Tehran, the chamber's website reported.

Chang became China's new ambassador to Iran in June to replace Pang Sen.

Iran's ambassador to China, Mohammad Keshavarz-Zadeh, referred to the growing trend of Iran-China relations and said the future of Iran-China relations is promising and any Chinese investment in financial and scientific fields will be advantageous for that country, according to Financial Tribune.

Addressing a ceremony for commemorating Students Day in Beijing on Sunday, the ambassador referred to the 25-year strategic plan between Iran and China, and said it has a great impact on strengthening their bilateral relations.

Iran’s ambassador noted that currently about 1,700 Iranian students are studying in China, adding that there are opportunities to increase that number.

"We are witnessing an increase in the number of Iranian students studying in China," he said.

Referring to the rise in the number of scholarships for Iranian university students to study in China, the Iranian ambassador to China pointed out that Chinese universities are among the world's leading universities.

"The embassy has been doing its best to prepare the political grounds for Iranian students to be granted scholarships," Keshavarz-Zadeh said.

Upon returning from a recent visit to China, Masoud Khansari, the president of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said Iran’s private sector is in talks with Chinese counterparts for creating a barter trade system.

“Negotiations are in their final stages and when implemented, barter trade will be carried out in cooperation with China and Hong Kong. This will facilitate and speed up our commercial ties,” he said.

The official added that Iran and China’s private sectors have agreed to launch an arbitration center to settle commercial disputes between traders and businesspeople from the two countries after the reimposition of economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic by the US last year.

“We had meetings with the officials of Beijing and Shanghai chambers of commerce as well as Iranians residing in China … The Chinese sides expressed their willingness to invest in Iranian mineral, power plant and agricultural projects that promise early profit returns, but said their investments will be indirect due to the sanctions against Iran.”

Khansari noted that Iran is aiming to increase the share of Chinese tourists in its inbound tourism and agreements have been reached for China’s tourism agencies to introduce Iran as a destination to their clients.

According to the TCCIM chief, Chinese tourists spent some $120 billion in their overseas travels in 2018 and Iran has ample capacity to increase its share of this sum.

China has for long been Iran's biggest trading partner, both on the import and export fronts.

CEO of Iran Railways Saeed Rasouli recently said Iran will cooperate in launching a Chinese corridor to Europe.

“A joint rail corridor between Iran and four regional countries will undertake the transportation of Chinese containerized cargoes to Europe for the first time,” Rasouli said in Ankara.

Pointing to the launch of this rail corridor, he said, “A memorandum of understanding was signed between CEOs of railroad companies of Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey for launching this rail corridor,” Fars News Agency reported.

“During the meeting, participants agreed to transport containerized cargoes from China to Turkey and from there to Europe using this corridor,” Rasouli added.