Addressing a gathering of Iranian-German industrialists on Monday, Vice Chairman of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) Saeed Faeghi said the share of German machines in Iran was 40 per cent in the past while it has deteriorated to 3.5 per cent at the moment; “although many European countries have announced readiness to do business with Iran, the Germans still subject bilateral trade cooperation to the removal of sanctions,” he noted.
“We have been trying to collaborate with well-known German companies for one year while some offer high quality products for high prices,” said Faeghi adding “high quality does not mark a good reason for high prices due to the ongoing competition in the market.”
He further emphasized that, “Germany’s competitors who had replaced the country during sanction years are en route to Iran and some have even opened their finances being eager to invest and participate in Iran while Germans are still doubtful about the lifting of sanctions.”
“Iran cannot wait for Germany to start cooperation until after the operation of JCPOA,” highlighted IDRO vice chairman stressing "we need to build several new factories in the coming months which require joint partnership and investment.”
German Ambassador to Tehran Michael Baron von Ungern, for his part, said German products lead the world in terms of quality and Germany marks the world’s second largest exporter after China; “Iranians still prefer German goods despite higher prices due to high quality,” he stressed.
“Germany was Iran’s first partner in industrial production 15 years ago,” said the German ambassador maintaining “currently, we seek to finance and fund projects in Iran given that the existing problems are resolved.”
He further referred to the recent trip of Sigmar Gabriel, German Vice Chancellor, to Iran; “there has been much debate over the agreements reached during the visit and we hope to achieve good results in trade with Iran,” said Michael Baron von Ungern expressing hope that banking issues will be reolved during the next few months.
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