Iran, China seek to facilitate trade ties

TEHRAN, Dec. 19 (MNA) – Head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Asadollah Asgaroladi said visa issuance to China was likely to become facilitated for Iranian businessmen. The official made the remarks highlighting that an Iranian economic delegation visits China once every six months to seek venues for development of bilateral relations. Asgaroladi touched upon a recent visit to China of an Iranian delegation saying “constructive meetings were held with Chinese investors and 300 entrepreneurs had been invited to the session.” “Iranian FM Mohammad Javad Zarif also conducted a number of fruitful meetings,” recalled the official asserting “we are after resolving visa obstacles since they are currently issued with difficulty.” He further reiterated that an economic delegation is planned to make a visit to China every six months; “the group is slated to travel to all Chinese provinces aiming to encourage Chinese traders for making investments in Iran.” He, while maintained that the main axes of talks with the Chinese side pertained to energy, road construction, railway and financing of Tehran-Mashhad Express Railway project, expressed hope that recent visits to China will yield results in the coming months. Head of the Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce also pointed to the arrival of a Russian economic delegation in Iran saying “Russians deployed the largest delegation to Iran last week and the trip led to signing of numerous protocols and contracts.” On getting over the issue of exports tariffs to Russia, Asadollah Asgaroladi said “tariffs mark the main barrier to reinvigoration of ties between Tehran and Moscow. They have however reduced the volume of tariffs and the main remaining concern is that Russians assign prices to Iranian products, something with which we disagree, stressed the official hoping that all difficulties will be eliminated.