“Iran Trade Center” was inaugurated in Damascus, Syria, on Nov. 30, the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture announced.
According to Gholamhossein Shafei, the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, the inauguration of the center is an opportunity to strengthen economic relations and increase trade between Iran and Syria.
The center features a database that helps Syrian traders receive information related to Iranian companies.
Shafei noted that the center also promotes import, export and marketing and is of great importance for strengthening economic relations between the two countries.
“The center has commercial offices that enable Iranian private companies to conduct business exchanges between the two countries,” Keyvan Kashefi, the chairman of Iran-Syria Chamber of Commerce, was quoted as saying.
He added that the center is important for the development of relations between the two countries and will help link the chambers of commerce of Iran and Syria.
Iranian Minister of Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade Reza Fatemi-Amin was also present at the inauguration.
"The center, a 12-story building situated on a 4,000-square-meter plot, has been purchased and equipped by ICCIMA. Two floors are dedicated to exhibition spaces and the other floors to different services, including marketing, transportation, legal advisory, banking and insurance, among others,” Keyvan Kashefi was earlier quoted as saying by IRNA.
During his stay in Syria, Fatemi-Amin expressed the Iranian company’s readiness to help revive the suspended factories in Syria and establish joint industries.
In a statement to reporters after visiting a number of factories in the industrial city of Adra on Tuesday, Fatemi-Amin said the aim of his visit is to develop economic relations between the two countries and support them to restore the glory of the Syrian industry, lost as a result of the terrorist war against the country, particularly the textile industry, SANA reported.
The Iranian minister and the accompanying delegation visited Syria on Sunday, which included several official meetings and the opening of the second Iranian products exhibition. The visit ended on Tuesday with the Syrian Investment Opportunities Forum.
Business Prospects
Iranian businesses active in the fields of hospital and medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, construction materials, agriculture, animal husbandry, oil and gas, petrochemicals, police and security equipment, food industries, water and electricity, steel, informatics, doors and windows, elevators and escalators, chain store and supermarket equipment, motorcycles, automobiles, textile, home appliances, banking and insurance took part in the expo, IRIB News reported.
Iran exported about 38,000 tons of non-oil goods valued at $66 million to Syria during the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 21) to register a 36% rise in value but a 26% decline in tonnage compared with last year’s corresponding period, according to the director general of Trade Promotion Organization of Iran’s Arab and African Affairs Bureau.
Speaking in an interview with Fars News Agency, Farzad Piltan added that Iran is the seventh biggest exporter to Syria, adding that Iran accounts for only 3% of export share in the Syrian market.
Iran has offered to help Syria reconstruct its war-torn areas after years of conflict.
Tehran and Damascus have a free trade agreement in place which, according to Piltan, can have a significant effect on easing trade between the two sides.
“Syria’s high demand in agricultural products, food products, home appliances, pharmaceuticals, construction material, sanitary ware, agro machinery and equipment, and Iran’s capabilities in these areas, coupled with reasonable prices and high-quality, can help boost commercial interactions between the two sides,” he said.
Syria and Iran concluded a free trade agreement in February 2012, which included a reduction of customs duties to 4% on goods traded between the two countries, cancelling all quantitative restrictions and lifting the ban on imports with similar effects.
The agreement came into force on March 12, 2012, and included an agreement to allow commercial trucks to pass between the two countries through Iraq.
