Iran - UAE trade ties back on track

June 1, 2014, Tehran - UAE Business delegation headed by the head of Dubai Chamber of Commerce paid a visited to Iran at the invitation of Tehran Chamber of Commerce and held several meetings with private and public economic officials of Iran.
In his meeting with UAE delegation, Mr. Aleshagh, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce described the relations between Iran and UAE as historic, unaffected by major turbulences and welcomed UAE investments in oil, tourism and industrial sectors. Acknowledging the already notable $10 billion trade volume between the two countries, Mr. Aleshagh added that undoubtedly, the trade relations between the two countries would continue; however, further efforts should be directed at expanding the existing trade capacities. In this regard, he highlighted the provision of the 5th National Development Plan based on which Iran is ready to attract $900 billion foreign investment in oil and other economic sectors and considered Iran's access to markets with 300 million strong population as an ideal chance for the investors. Given the assuring prospect of ROI in Iran, Mr. Aleshagh pointed out that existing problems would be resolved sooner or later and called on Iran's longtime partners to be among the first to renew trade ties with this country.
As to the minor challenges on the way of mutual relations, he noted that the problems were not fundamental and limited to differences in tastes and that the governments of both countries sought to remove the obstacles and extend ties. Even with pure economic intentions, he believed forging better mutual relations would serve the interests of both countries.
Head of UAE Chamber of Commerce, Mohammad Thani Morshed Alramithi, praised the strong, respectful and amicable Iran-UAE relations throughout the times and said that UAE remained hopeful about the development of trade relations between the two countries. Given the history of Iran-UAE relations which have been mainly based on real estate, trade and logistics, Mr. Alramithi expressed interest to increase investment in Iran as long-term UAE strategy towards Iran and considered UAE as a potential bridge for Iran to other parts of the world. Mr. Seif Algharir, the head of UAE Chamber of Commerce and Industry noted that more than 50000 Iranian companies from public and private sector were active in UAE and despite the decline in trade relations in recent years, a booming future lied ahead of both countries. He further confirmed that Iran-UAE trade relations were back to normalcy and added that the problems on the way of relations were less than 5% and so insignificant to the point that they could not by any means overshadow the achievements.
Keyahn