President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei has underlined the need for Iran to further enhance economic diplomacy.
Shafei made the remarks during a meeting of ICCIMA board members and some other top Iranian private sector representatives with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Iranian ambassadors to regional countries.
He expressed satisfaction with the Foreign Minister’s approach to the economic issues and his second meeting with private sector representatives.
“Economy and politics have a two-way relationship with each other and they will together provide the ground for growth,” Shafei said.
He stressed the necessity for enhancement of relations with neighboring countries, however noting that such relations have to be coupled with improvement of bordering and customs infrastructures.
On Iran’s full membership in Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), he said it seems Iran cannot properly make use of this capacity.
Shafei said that all SCO members but Iran are also member states to the World Trade Organization (WTO) and have accepted FATF regulations.
He also called on Iranian ambassadors to regional countries to provide Iran Chamber of Comerce with the information needed for trade with these countries, such as those about customs and standard regulations.
Iran Chamber of Comerce chief expressed concern about Iran’s transit situation and said if Iran does not manage to improve its transportation system and speed of railways and fails to remove road problems, the country will be excluded from regional and international transit routes.
He warned that rival countries are trying to replace Iran in transit routes.