SMT, a daily, carried a news piece about a recent visit to the Netherlands by Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholamhossein Shafei to promote trade relations between the two countries.
What appears below is the translation of a report that Shafei presented about the meeting held at the Netherlands Council for Trade Promotion where a number of Iranian expatriate businessmen, the Iranian business delegation accompanying Shafei, Iran’s ambassador to the Netherlands, and some Dutch businessmen compared notes:
Four hundred-year-old relations between Iran and the Netherlands are immensely strong. Although a number of problems such as sanctions have considerably pushed the level of ties between the two countries down, they have failed to stop the private sectors of the two nations from having mutual cooperation.
I hope this visit has offered a realistic image of Iran which has been blurred under clouds of biased propaganda. Tehran does not seek unilateral relations; instead it sees the Netherlands as a gateway to Europe. Likewise Iran can be viewed as a gate to access 500 million-strong consumers in its neighboring countries. That’s why ICCIMA is planning to establish the Iran-Netherlands Joint Chamber of Commerce.
The diplomacy adopted by the 11th government has introduced more dynamism into Iran’s interaction with developed countries. The impact of Iran’s economy on the regional market including Afghanistan, Iraq and Central Asia could set the stage for mutual and multilateral cooperation in different areas.
Moreover, Iran’s central position in the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), which brings together 10 countries, can offer a chance to Iran’s trade partners to unlock the trade potential of as many as 400 million consumers.
In line with the Sustainable Workplace Improvement Plan, the government is utterly determined to swiftly promote Iran’s ranking as far as the ease-on-doing-business index is concerned. Therefore, it can be said that Iran’s new investment law has opened up a great opportunity for the presence of foreign companies on Iran’s market.
The private sector is now propping up itself by exercising the wide discretion given to it by the government and by dispatching business delegations either independently or with President Rouhani which has the full backing of the government. These measures are a reflection of a profound and sustainable plan meant to give the private sector a leg-up.
