Iran, China seek trade expansion

A senior Iranian official has stressed the importance of promoting trade cooperation with China, calling on the two countries to take new steps towards investment.

Iran and China have drawn plans to increase the value of bilateral trade exchanges to 50 billion dollars by 2015, IRNA quoted head of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Asadollah Asgaroladi as saying in the Chinese capital city of Beijing on Wednesday.

“We do not seek to expand trade ties based on consumer products, but think of implementing joint projects,” Asgaroladi said.

He pointed to Iran’s economic, political and geographical strategic position in the Middle East, saying, “We can have the highest level of trade ties with China in the region.”

The Iranian official noted that the value of trade exchanges between Tehran and Beijing reached from 150 million dollars to some 30 billion dollars during the past three decades.

Asgaroladi went on to say that joint investment would strengthen amicable ties between the two countries and said joint ventures would prevent mutual ties from being affected by political events.

“China did not victimize its interests in cooperating with Iran by political tastes of Western countries,” the economic figure noted.

The remarks came as Iranian Ambassador to Beijing Mehdi Safari said earlier on Tuesday that the Islamic Republic welcomes foreign investments, especially from longtime trade partners such as China.

“The Islamic Republic sets no limit for investments by Chinese companies in Iran,” Safari said.

The Iranian envoy added that Chinese firms have expressed interest in investing in different projects in Iran, including industries, road construction and energy.

Iran is currently China’s third largest supplier of crude, providing China with roughly 12 percent of its total annual oil consumption — nearly one million barrels per day.