Syria needs petrochemical companies as well as Iranian joint ventures to rebuild its destroyed industrial facilities, a Syrian government minister says.
“Constructing petrochemical companies with Iranian firms is highly important because such facilities provide the necessary material for a hundred more industries,” Syrian Industry Minister Mohammad Maen Zein-al-Abidin Jazba told a high-level delegation from Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) in Damascus on Tuesday.
He called for joint ventures between Iranian and Syrian firms to revive cement, iron, pharmaceutical and textile companies.
Jazba also proposed that Iranian companies produce necessary yeast for baking bread, launch cancer and special diseases drugs firms in Syria.
The Syrian Industry minister also urged that a joint industrial chamber of commerce be created between the two countries.
Gholam Hossein Shafei ICCIMA president, who headed the delegation, said the entity he presides launched a joint economic committee between Iran and Syria last year, aimed at fostering further trade between the two countries.
Shafei added that Iran Chamber of Commerce will introduce a number of private Iranian petrochemical companies to start work in Syria.
Referring to the nearly-complete defeat of the so-called Islamic State terrorists, Shafei reiterated that private Iranian firms are ready to produced the necessary construction materials so Syria can speed up reconstructing destroyed infrastructure and facilities.
He also announced that Tehran is actively persuing an agreement with Iraq to ship its commodities to Syria via road and railways to cut short the distance and reduce transit costs. Shafei also called for the creation of a trilateral transit company between Iran, Iraq and Syria.
Iran’s exports to Syria are currently shipped either through Turkish roads or by sea from Bandar Abbas Port in the Persian Gulf.
The ICCIMA president said Iran is ready to pay out the costs of connecting its railways with Iraqi railroads to increase trade volume with Syria.