Trade between Iran and Austria has grown 20% in 2015 compared to the previous year and is estimated to increase by the same rate next year, says Austria’s commercial attaché to Iran, Thomas Mosching.
“Banking transactions between the two countries will hopefully resume by the end of 2016, which will pave the way for economic cooperation between the two sides,” IRNA quoted Mosching as saying during his visit to Iran’s eastern South Khorasan Province on Monday.
Trade between Iran and Austria currently stands at about $300 million per year, but both countries are hoping to increase this figure to $1 billion in the coming years.
Back in September, Austrian President Heinz Fischer, accompanied by Vice Chancellor Reinhold Mittelehner, Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz and a 240-member economic, cultural and academic delegation, paid a three-day visit to Iran.
During this trip, Austrian companies signed 15 memoranda of understanding worth €80 million ($89 million) with their Iranian counterparts in a wide range of sectors, including auto parts, information technology and engineering.
Tehran and Vienna, according to Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Ali Tayyebnia, have also arrived at a preliminary agreement to eliminate double taxation.
