Bulgarian businesses have already entered Tehran's rapidly growing stock and equities market and are showing increasing interest in working in Iran, the country's senior envoy to Tehran said Wednesday.
Ambassador Christo Polendakov made the statement in a meeting with Ali Reza Bakhtiari, managing director of the Financial Tribune and its sister publication the Persian-language Donya-e-Eqtesad at the newspaper's office. The meeting was also attended by the Tribune Chief Editor Khosrow Ghadiri.
In line with Sofia's declared policy of building closer economic and trade ties to Tehran, a 100-member delegation will visit Iran in the middle of next month to discuss new areas of collaboration.
"The high-profile team will include ministers, their deputies and representatives from private and public enterprise," Polendakov said in fluent Persian. He said his country is looking closely at a "wide-range of economic opportunities" in the new and emerging Iranian market after the lifting of the sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. Some key areas, according to him, are "nuclear and renewable energy, agriculture and rail transport."
The envoy acknowledged that "Iran is an important player" and closer commercial links with this country can and should help expand Bulgaria's trade ties to the Mena region. Bakhtiari said "As Iran has opened its economy to the outside world, other countries should do more to share economic and trade information" in the interest of their peoples." And this is where the media comes in, he stressed.
The Tribune owner and publisher reiterated his strong stance on and belief in "creating and promoting the conditions for effective and mutually-beneficial commerce" among nations in and outside the region.
He said his publishing house in "willing and able" to help the Bulgarian businesses get their message across to Iranian companies and vice versa.
