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| Sunday, 25 January 2004 |
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Iran seeks investment opportunities in Lanka The Government of Iran is looking at the possibility of investing in Sri Lanka in the areas of power generation, exploration of oil, fisheries and processing of sea food, housing, health care and water. This was revealed by the Minister of Finance and Economics of Iran T. Mazaheri, who led a 40-member delegation to Sri Lanka for the seventh official opening of the Joint Commission meeting between the two countries. Chairman, Iran Chamber of Commerce, Khamoshi was also a member of the delegation. He said: "The main aim of the meeting was to negotiate and expand economic relations between the two countries as there is vast potential for sharing of resources and expansion of trade between the two countries. This task lies on the shoulders of both governments". The Iranian Minister said the two countries have signed a treaty on double taxation, but there should be incentives for the private sector of the two countries. The Joint Commission meeting will help further strengthen and follow up on what the two parties have agreed on. He said agreements on shipping lines and foreign investment have been finalised while there are agreements on Customs and repairing of ships to be finalised in the near future. Expressing his views on the tea sector, he said Russia has an old-fashioned system of producing tea. Therefore, the quality of tea is not up to the mark, which has resulted in tea being imported from countries such as Sri Lanka and India. "Our unsold tea is kept in warehouses and the producers are expecting the government to impose some controls on the import of tea while the customers request quality tea. "As a solution to this problem, we have requested technical assistance from Sri Lanka to improve the quality of tea," he added. Modifying the quality of Iranian tea will result in an increase in the production since we have a physical limitation in increasing the production capacity. Therefore, Sri Lanka should not be worried about giving technical assistance to Iran as it will not result in another competitor in the world market, he opined. The two countries will also sign a Free Trade Agreement in the near future, said a confident Mazaheri. "Mahan Air presently flies twice a week between Teheran and Colombo, which has helped boost economic ties between the two countries. We are trying to add a third flight if both countries are comfortable with the arrangement," he added. Expressing his views on Sri Lanka's political stability, he said there is much stability in the country with the peace process, but hoped that this will be even better in the future. The newly appointed Ambassador for Iran in Sri Lanka, Behnam Behrouz said that there is a wealth of information and resources that can be shared, but due to a gap, the flow of information is not very smooth and cordial and he said that he hopes to make it a two-way process and share the information and resources to further strengthen the cooperation between the two countries. (SG) |
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