Government officials and private sector representatives from Iran and Hungary attended a business forum held by Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) in Tehran on February 22.
Speaking at the meeting, Iran’s Finance Minister Ehsan Khandouzi said that achieving trade goals between the two countries is possible only with the participation of the private sector.
Khandouzi asked for expansion of banking and insurance relations between Iran and Hungary stressing that Iranian and Hungarian companies need these settlement tools to increase the current level of trade between the two countries.
Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto who headed the country’s delegation in Tehran said that both countries are interested in developing economic cooperation in areas not affected by sanctions, such as the pharmaceutical, health, food, and water management industries.
Speaking at the forum, Vice-President of Iran Chamber of Commerce Mohammad Reza Bahraman expressed readiness from the Iranian side to establish a joint trade committee between the private sectors of the two countries saying that the committee would enable direct contacts between representatives from Iran and Hungary private sectors.
Concurrent with the business forum, the fourth session of the Iran-Hungary Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation was also held on February 22. The commission weighed plans for the expansion of cooperation in different fields including trade, investment, industry, agriculture, energy, transportation, science, and technology.
During the meeting, the two sides signed a trade deal in the agriculture and food industries.
"The cooperation agreement between Iran and Hungary, signed today and entering into force, provides additional trade opportunities in the fields of agriculture and the food industry," Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.
"It doesn't matter what we think about sanctions in general," Szijjarto said in Tehran, adding that building cooperation under sanctions is "not easy" but also "not impossible."
