Iran Expo 2024 to host 3,000 foreigners

Some 3,000 foreign traders and businessmen are expected to participate in the 6th International Export Potential Exhibition of the Islamic Republic of Iran, dubbed Iran Expo 2024, an official with the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) said.

The exhibition will be inaugurated on April 27 and run through May 1, 2024, the ICCIMA deputy head for commissions, assemblies, and council affairs stated in a meeting held with the participation of representatives of the joint chamber of commerce.

Noting that the first edition of the Iran Expo was held in 2013, Ali Chagharvand predicted that 3,000 foreign traders and merchants from various countries would partake in the latest edition of the exhibition.

This exhibition will cover seven major groups of commodities including food industries, agriculture and fisheries, handwoven carpets, handicrafts and tourism, medicine, medical equipment and chemical products, building industry, technical and engineering services, and also the petrochemical group.

Promoting trade and economic relations with other countries, booming production, propelling the business environment of the private sector to the international arena, and creating a new trade and economic discourse with various countries have been cited as the main aims of holding the exhibition.

The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Majid Reza Hariri and Vice Chairman of the Iran-Russia Joint Chamber of Commerce Roshanali Yekta.

 

Iran to improve transit infrastructure

The head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) has stressed the need to increase efforts for improving the country’s transit infrastructure in order to benefit from the recent developments in the region, the ICCIMA portal reported.

Speaking at a meeting of the Mashhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Transport Committee, Gholam Hossein Shafeie mentioned the competitiveness of the transit market in the region, saying, “Competitors are creating alternative routes by spending huge amounts of money to replace Iran in the transit market.”

Stating that Turkey has made several efforts to strengthen the Trans-Caspian Corridor for transiting goods between East and West, he added, “With the integration of the Trans-Caspian Corridor in the Silk Road Project, this corridor will be connected with the China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor that passes through Iran.”

Shafeie further referred to the recent changes in the world including the war between Russia and Ukraine, saying, “In this period, due to the change in the global transport routes, new opportunities have been provided for Iran and we should take full advantage of such opportunities.”

The Islamic Republic has been taking serious measures for the development of its railway network as well as its ports and shipping infrastructure in order to encourage more countries to join the project.

Using the capacities of the International North-South Transit Corridor (INSTC), Iran will be able not only to expand the volume of trade with Russia and the countries of the region, it can also gain a huge share of the mentioned countries’ annual transit.

Currently, Russia has proposed to take part in some railway projects in Iran in order to accelerate the development of the Islamic Republic’s railway network along the mentioned route.

The row between Europe and Russia over the Ukraine war, which resulted in harsh sanctions being imposed on the country made Russia look for new ways for distributing its goods across the world, especially in Asia and mainly through the INSTC.

According to official data, one of the major advantages of INSTC is that the cost of transporting goods through this corridor is cheaper by 30%. It also halves the time it takes to transport Indian goods to Russia via the Suez Canal.

Iran can use this transit route to distribute European commodities in the shortest possible time and at a lower cost than other routes to the Indian Ocean and the Persian Gulf.

 

Iran Pakistan private sectors ink MoUs

Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) and Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FPCCI) have signed three memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the aim of expanding economic cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries.

The MOUs were signed during a visit of an Iranian private sector delegation headed by ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie to the Pakistani cities of Karachi and Lahore.

Based on the signed memorandums, the two sides agreed to strengthen comprehensive cooperation between the private sectors of the two countries, to establish a joint trade council of Iran and Pakistan, and to determine a mechanism to resolve trade disputes.

Accordingly, the Iran-Pakistan Joint Trade Council will work together with the Iran-Pakistan Joint Chamber of Commerce to strengthen economic relations between the two neighbors.

ICCIMA and FPCCI will also resolve the trade disputes between businessmen and traders through a channel separated from the two countries’ legal systems.

During their visit to Pakistan, the Iranian delegates attended a meeting with officials from the State Bank of Pakistan in which the two sides discussed details of a barter trade mechanism between the two countries.

The Zahedan Chamber of Commerce from Iran and the Quetta Chamber of Commerce and Industries (QCCI) from Pakistan have been put in charge as coordinators for implementing and pursuing the barter trade mechanism between the two sides.

As reported, at the end of the meeting the two sides agreed to form a 10-member committee to work on the details of the mechanism and follow up on the related issues in the future.

Solving currency and customs issues for the easy passage of transit trucks and accelerating the implementation of the free trade agreement between Iran and Pakistan, along with using Iran's membership status in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), were also among the issues that were discussed in this meeting.

Details of the barter trade mechanism were also discussed in another meeting with the members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) on Thursday.

Speaking in this meeting, KCCI Head Mohammad Tariq Yousuf mentioned the unsatisfactory level of trade between the two countries and noted that the barter trade agreement would open new windows for the expansion of trade ties between the two sides.

Shafeie for his part mentioned Karachi as the economic capital of Pakistan, saying that despite the significant capacities on both sides, the level of commercial relations between the two countries is still very limited.

During their stay in Pakistan, the 26-member Iranian delegation, comprised of the head of the Iran-Pakistan Joint Chamber of commerce, the heads of the three provincial chambers of Isfahan, Zanjan, and Zahedan, the secretary general of the ECO chamber of commerce, and four MPs, visited the cities of Karachi and Lahore.

Promoting bilateral trade to five billion dollars is said to be among the main objectives of this visit.

 

Online Conference on boosting trade between Iran and Afghanistan

An online conference is scheduled on opportunities and strategies for trade between Iran and Afghanistan on Monday. This has been stated at the portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA). The online event will be attended by Hossein Salimi, the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce.

In this conference, the security and political situation of Afghanistan and the perspective of economic and political relations between the two countries, trade opportunities and goods and services needs of Afghanistan, investment opportunities in Afghanistan, how to participate in the Afghan market, Afghanistan and Iran credit lines and financial transfer will be reviewed.

Back in January, the Director General of the Asia-Pacific Office of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) had said that a preferential trade agreement with Afghanistan was going to be signed in the near future.

Speaking in the fourth meeting of Khorasan Razavi-Herat Joint Trade Committee in Mashhad, Reza Seyed-Aqazadeh said, “Necessary coordination has been made with the Ministry of Commerce of Afghanistan.”

He mentioned previous tariff agreements between the two countries and said, “Previously, in 2015, the tariffs for the imports of five commodity items from Afghanistan including the imports of sesame were reduced; the tariffs on sesame imports were reduced from 10 percent to five percent.”

According to the official, balancing international trade, especially with Afghanistan is one of the major strategies of Iran in foreign trade, and TPO’s goal is to establish a balanced trade between the two countries.

Special strategies have been adopted by the Trade Promotion Organization for balancing trade with Afghanistan and for resolving problems in this field, he said, adding that the issues and demands of Afghan businessmen will also be reviewed in a special working group in this organization to take the necessary measures and resolve their issues.

Having shared historical, cultural, political, and economic backgrounds, Iran and Afghanistan have been allies for many years and the strategic cooperation between the two countries has been broadened especially over the past two decades.

The value of Iran’s exports to Afghanistan is anticipated to reach US$3 billion in the current Iranian calendar year, according to Hossein Salimi, the chairman of Iran-Afghanistan Joint Chamber of Commerce.