President of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafei on Monday urged the need for implementing the already signed agreements between Iran and South Africa.
Speaking during a meeting in Tehran with South African Ambassador to Tehran Vika Khumalo, the Iran Chamber of Commerce president said that plans for a joint commission meeting of Iran and South Africa are promising as the meeting is due to be held in the near future after a long interval.
Regretting that the level of trade relations between Iran and South Africa is not “defendable”, Shafei said that economic relations have to promote in a way to match political relations between the two countries.
He said that Iran Chamber of Commerce is ready to send a delegation to South Africa after the joint commission meeting and also host a delegation from the South African Chamber of Commerce.
Shafei also underlined the necessity of barter trade between Iran and South Africa, especially in the agriculture center, calling for making further planning in this regard.
He referred to energy and electricity sectors, technical and engineering areas, as well as mining, transportation, and pharmaceuticals as other areas for cooperation between the two countries.
In the meantime, the South African ambassador underlined the significance of a joint commission meeting between the two countries which he said is scheduled to be held after a visit to South Africa by Iranian president.
Noting that the previous governments of both Iran and South Africa had targeted $2 billion trade between the two countries by 2022 but failed to reach this point, Ambassador Khumalo called for further efforts to expand bilateral trade to this level.
He also said that South Africa faces great challenges for meeting its electricity needs, while Iran has the necessary know-how for renovation of power generation networks which can be used by South Africa.
Khumalo said that more meetings and negotiations are needed between officials from both sides to help reach the targets for bilateral cooperation.