Speaking at a meeting with British PM’s trade envoy in Tehran, President of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPO) Mojtaba Khosrowtaj said volume of Iran’s imports from Britain is far more than its exports figure to the European country while a balance need to be achieved in this regard.
He underlined the need to reinvigorate and expand banking and insurance activities between the two sides as a crucial prerequisite to bolstering economic, business and industrial collaborations.
TPO head said Iranian private sector and economic activists need to be properly informed on Britain’s competitive position in Europe and the world over the coming decade; “facilitation of visa issuance and elevation of the level of bilateral cooperation for granting credit facilities as well as collaboration on reducing the country’s risk rate among OECD countries are among other major issues to be followed up.”
Also at the meeting, UK's trade envoy to the Islamic Republic of Iran Norman Lamont pointed to existence of excellent venues for cooperation between the two sides and called for resolution of banking issues adding “in line with negotiations held with the US Secretary of State John Kerry and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), all relevant officials are after finding proper solutions to remaining difficulties.”
The official also referred to cooperation of certain small-scale banks with Iran explaining that some restrictions pertain to the mismatch between standards held by Iranian banks and those of world banks.
Lord Lamont highlighted that facilitation of visa issuance is a mutual task and needs to be carried out in joint collaboration between embassies of both parties.
“Britain believes that better conditions can emerge in competition with other states over areas like financial services, oil and gas, infrastructure, rail and railways, airports, designing services, technical consultation and aerospace,” he continued.
At the meeting, the two sides agreed to exchange specialized delegations in order to define a road map for economic, industrial and trade cooperation between Iran and Britain in areas of common interest like financial and banking services, oil and gas, aerospace, renewable energies, pharmaceuticals, health and international trade.
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