Baku, Azerbaijan, April 10
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Cooperation between Iran and Slovenia in various fields, including energy, transport, food products and technical and engineering fields, can increase the trade turnover by $1 billion, Mohammad Reza Karbasi, deputy head for international affairs at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), said.
He made the remarks at a meeting with the delegation headed by Alenka Suhadolnik, Director General of the Directorate for Economic and Public Diplomacy at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, Trend reports referring to ICCIMA’s website.
According to Karbasi, Slovenia is not only a trade partner, but also Iran's main gateway to Eastern European countries, and Iran has a strategic position as a gateway to CIS countries, Afghanistan, India and Pakistan.
Stating that trade turnover between Iran and Slovenia did not diminish due to past sanctions and make up $180 million, Karbasi added that currently, as new sanctions have been implemented, the trade turnover between Iran and Slovenia dropped to about $100 million.
"As a representative of the private sector, the Iran Chamber of Commerce will support the development of economic relations between the two countries and will try to increase trade turnover," he said.
Touching on the activity of the INSTEX financial mechanism, he added that, unfortunately, the fact that this financial mechanism has not yet been launched has led to the Iranian private sector's despair from the EU and Iranian businessmen turning to Asian countries.
Alenka Suhadolnik also said that Slovenia supports INSTEX and hopes its results will soon be determined.
She added that a Slovenian pharmaceutical company exports medicines to Iran, and that 2 meat producing companies are ready to send meat to Iran.
The Slovenian official expressed hope for a meeting of the joint committee for economic cooperation between Iran and Slovenia next year.