Speaking at a joint session with the Italian Minister of the Environment Gian Luca Galletti, Iran’s Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian pointed to the age-old history of ties between the two sides saying “Tehran and Rome have always held economic and diplomatic relations which will hopefully become reinvigorated in the post-JCPOA era.”
“following the historic Paris Agreement and Iran’s voluntary partnership in it, several measures have been taken by Iran in line with implementation of the accord’s provisions,” highlighted the official asserting “once instance pertains to construction of over 7500 wind, solar, geothermal and biomass power plants.”
The official went on to add that an Italian company has built the equipment for Iran’s first geothermal power house which will be installed soon.
“Another important initiative is construction of more than 7,000 MW in steam section of the country’s gas power stations in a bid to increase efficiency by 1.5 times and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.
Chitchian said part of the gas power plant equipment have been supplied by Ansaldo company expressing hope that the Italian firm will be able to also launch activities in the steam section by offering appropriate recommendations.
He emphasized that execution and development of projects in water and sewage treatment areas remained as yet another venue of cooperation between the two countries; “one main obstacle to development of bilateral cooperation absence of LOCs between Iran and Italy.”
At the end of his remarks, Iran’s energy minister voiced optimism that Italy will hopefully accomplish the key issue of opening a credit line to Iran.
Italy’s Minister of the Environment Gian Luca Galletti, for his part, stressed the need to remain committed to Paris Agreement noting “the accord is a mandatory treaty among majority of world countries and implementation of its obligations requires development of environmental collaborations between all parties.
He said Italy was a leading country in the field of producing renewable energies as huge leaps had been made in that regard over the past ten years.
“Participation of over 10 credible Italian firms in Iran International Renewable Energy Congress is an indication of Italy’s interest in the Iranian energy market.”
The visiting official went on to maintain that “presently, the Italian Ministry of Economic Development and Iran’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance are working on a legal document on how to remove the obstacles ahead of reopening credit lines between the two countries which will hopefully yield results in coming days.”
At the end of the session, the two sides agreed on preparing a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on venues of cooperation between Iran and Italy in the utility sector.
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