Slovenia's President Borut Pahor, heading a 60-strong economic delegation, attended Iran-Slovenia economic forum at Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) on Tuesday.
Following a bilateral meeting with ICCIMA President Gholam Hossein Shafei, President Borut Pahor addressed Iran-Slovenia trade meeting attended by over 400 businesspeople.
Heading a high-ranking economic and political officials President Borut Pahor arrived in Tehran on Monday and was welcomed by Iran's Energy Minister Hamid Chitchian upon his arrival. Companies active in air, rail and road transportation, construction, tourism, telecommunications, banking, energy, agriculture, mine, medicine and several other sectors were part of the Slovenian delegation.
“Expansion of economic and political relations is high on the agenda and in line with this, we are reopening our embassy in Tehran,” said President Borut Pahor.
Referring to the 2008 global financial crisis and its effect on the Slovenian economy he said: “After a four-year period we conquered the difficulties and now we face a positive economic growth in Slovenia.”
We have discussed expansion of ties with our Iranian counterparts, he said, referring to the reopening of Slovenian embassy in Tehran as an important step for strengthening economic and political ties.
Resolving Iran nuclear issue showed the strength of diplomatic negotiations and my visit to Tehran is a result of the positive aspects of the agreement reached between Iran and the 5+1 group, President Borut Pahor said.
Iran Chamber of Commerce President Gholam Hossein Shafei also referred to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in July 2015 saying the agreement has resulted in expansion of both political and economic ties between Iran and world countries. “Several high-ranking delegations from many world countries have visited Iran during past months and the Iran’s main approach is to establish bilateral and multilateral cooperation both in regional and trans-regional levels.”
Slovenia is on the mainline of the European Union transit route, Shafei said, which adds to the importance of bilateral relation between Tehran and Ljubljana.
“During years of international sanctions, Slovenia continued to have an active role in Iran. Tehran and Ljubljana have been seeking to improve trade and economic cooperation along with political relations after the implementation of JCPOA and now we expect to increase our volume of trade to 100 million US dollars in four years,” Iran Chamber of Commerce president said.
The value of trade exchanges between Iran and Slovenia has decreased in recent years and fallen from 96 million euros in 2011 to 46 million euros in 2012 and 25.5 million euros in 2013. Slovenian has not been among Iran’s top 20 trade partners, according to Iran Customs Administration.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany started implementing the JCPOA in January 2016.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
Iranian and Slovenian tradesmen participated in B2B negotiations following Iran-Slovenia economic forum.