Hosseinali Darvishi Motevalli, Consul General of Iran in Guangzhou made the remarks in an interview with GDToday.
Darvishi described Guangdong, a province he expected to be the pioneer of closer China-Iran ties in trade, science and technology, and more fields.
From April to July 2021, Iran’s export to China totaled around 4.3 billion USD, making China the top export destination of Iranian goods and services.
In the China-Iran strategic partnership, Guangdong boasts huge potential in economic, scientific, agricultural, and cultural collaborations with Iran, according to Darvishi.
"Iran is ready and welcomes the cooperation with Guangdong," he noted, saying, "We are also ready to provide facilities for Guangdong's public and private sectors to invest in Iran."
He added, Iran as one of the most developed countries in West Asia, has good ground for cooperation with cities in the GBA, especially about youth exchange, and science and technology.
Talented people, as well as universities on the two sides, can make a joint project in R&D and commercialization of technologies about patent and template, bring them to the market so that we can enjoy the benefits, he said.
In recent years, there has been a rise of Iranian students studying in China with the total number reaching 3000. China now has 20 research centers for Iran and the Persian language has been on 14 Chinese universities' curriculum.
Global pandemic needs global efforts
The COVID-19 outbreak starting from 2020 has witnessed mutual assistance and support between China and Iran in the face of such a shared challenge for the global community.
China received 3 million medical masks from Iran at the onset of the crisis and Iran was one of the first countries that China sent a medical aid team to.
As of August 17, 2021, China has donated 1.55 million doses of vaccines to Iran Darvishi said, adding that constructive cooperation in the field of vaccine and health is "the best example of cooperation between countries in this regard".
When talking about the major task currently for the world to beat the virus, Darvishi stated that countries such as Iran and China, which have produced their own local vaccine, should help poor countries and empower them to save their people.
Anti-globalization sentiment and unilateralism, as a by-product of the pandemic, is also rising up in international society.
In a phone call with former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in July, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China is ready to work with Iran to continue to oppose unilateralism and bullying behaviors and that the two countries will work together to better safeguard the common interests of China, Iran, and other developing countries.
Darvishi stated that both China and Iran take a firm position for multilateralism in global issues.
"China and Iran always oppose some countries' behaviors that lead to unilateralism. The two countries have always helped each other in international forums, and should strengthen the plans in the framework of South-South Cooperation, thus helping two countries to resist against unilateralism.", he said.
RHM/PR