Official: China Willing to Invest in Qom’s Monorail, Airport Projects

“Chinese companies are ready to cooperate with this province in the construction of the second phase of the monorail as well as the telecommunication networks, airport and highway construction projects and they intend to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in this regard,” Top Adviser of China’s Gansu Governor General Oyang Jian said in Qom today.

He pointed to the activities of Gansu province in recent years, and said, “Gansu province is the first Chinese province that has set up a trade delegation.”

The Chinese official noted that the value of Gansu-Qom export/import has exceeded $100 million, and said since Gansu and Qom are sister provinces their cooperation should further increase.

He expressed the hope that Gansu and Qom provinces would increase their cooperation in the agriculture and energy sectors.

Gansu is a province of the People’s Republic of China, located in the Northwest of the country.

Last month, Chinese officials held talks with their Iranian counterparts to finalize a deal on financing railway development projects in Iran.

“Our priority is the development of railway through attracting finance and recently we have reached an understanding with China, which is being finalized now,” Deputy Director of Construction and Development of Infrastructures Transportation Company (CDITC) Seyed Massoud Nasr Azadani told FNA after the talks.

He, meantime, said that proper conditions are also ready for the Iranian companies to invest in building railway lines in the country.

Earlier today, Iran’s Ambassador to China Mehdi Safari underlined Tehran’s resolve to utilize every possible capacity to pave the ground for widening and deepening all-out relations with China.

Addressing the Iranian China-based Businessmen Council members, Safari said senior officials, in both Tehran and Beijing, have always underlined expansion of mutual cooperation between the two friendly countries.

He went on to say that the two countries’ trade stood at $39.5bln last year, of which $25.393bln pertained to China’s imports from Iran and $14.387bln to its exports to Iran.

Describing Iran as a reliable partner to China in the region, he further noted that China is well aware of Iran’s influential role in the strategic regions of West Asia, Middle-East and the Persian Gulf.

Recalling Iran’s very suitable situation for the Chinese investors, he further noted that a group of Chinese experts will visit Iran to study the location and infrastructure of Bandar Jask on rims of the Persian Gulf for investment and establishing industrial townships.

He called on the Iranian traders and economic activists to enter China’s great market and raise non-oil exports to the country.

Iran is currently China’s third largest supplier of crude, providing Beijing with roughly 12 percent of its total annual oil consumption.