Dritsas told Iran’s Ambassador to Greece Majid Motalebi Shabestari that there are abundant capacity for cooperation between the two countries in shipping and Greek shipping and ports can play an important role in transfer of Iranian energy and goods to the world markets.
He also urged exchange of views by Iranian and Greek authorities to expand the two-way cooperation.
The Iranian diplomat for his part pointed to recent visit of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to Iran and described it as a turning point in bilateral relations. ‘The road map of the two-way cooperation was agreed upon in the meeting and the framework and highlights of mutual cooperation, including in the area of shipping, were specified.’
He said mutual cooperation in the international organizations will expand.

Hamoudi welcomed Iran’s experience in managing the non-oil economy saying Iraq is after substitution oil revenues with alternative sources of income.
He also hailed Iran’s role in supporting Iraqi people from the fall of the dictatorial regime of Saddam up to the on-going fight against Daesh terrorists.
Kharrazi who is visiting Baghdad after meeting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, also met Iraqi president, prime minister, oil minister and foreign minister.
Expansion of bilateral relations and anti-terrorism cooperation between the two neighboring countries were reportedly top on the agenda of negotiations.

The officials say in the case of Iran, the lifting of sanctions has paved the way for direct relations.
Three Iranian banks, Bank Pasargad, Saman Bank and Parsian Bank, are in queue, according to information made available to the Rajya Sabha.
Two banks from Pakistan, MCB Bank and United Bank, have sent proposals to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for opening branches in the country.
Bank of Montreal (Canada), ING Bank (the Netherlands), and Busan Bank (South Korea) have also sought permission from RBI to set up branches here.
Recently, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) said it would initiate talks with RBI to allow it to introduce Islamic financing, raising of capital in accordance with Sharia law.
This comes at a time when foreign banks in India have been reducing their footprint because of trouble in their home markets and rising competition from Indian banks.
Rising bad loans have forced some foreign lenders to slow down. Standard Chartered Bank, the largest foreign bank in India in terms of branches, has decided to reduce its unsecured retail and corporate business in the country.

A review of Iran’s map and its massive potentialities in energy, industry, transportation and tourism sectors and its situation in the crossroads of Persian Gulf littoral states, eastern and western Asian countries and newly independent states and the region’s geopolitical developments after the Islamic Revolution is telling that major geopolitical changes are under way in the region.
In the 37 years since the Revolution, the enemies have sought to curb Tehran’s geopolitical and geo-economic might as much as they could, and the blockade of Iran by its enemies which hold fast to global oil market domination, kept tightening and aimed at Iran’s export routs and energy links with the world.
From the east, the Peace Pipeline, which was supposed to send Iran’s natural gas to Pakistan and then to India came to a standstill under the pretext of international sanctions on Tehran’s nuclear program; Islamabad signed a key deal with Qatar for the import of liquefied natural gas (LNG) immediately after the removal of sanctions on Tehran; from the west, ISIL began to emerge in Iraq and a proxy war formed in Syria under the excuse of bringing down Bashar Assad, which have blocked Iran’s gas pipeline routes to Europe; in south, repeated disruptions are reported in Iran’s gas exports to United Arab Emirates which favor Abu Dhabi and Qatar which stepped into the Turkish gas market immediately after Iran’s nuclear deal.
The same goes for Iran’s crude oil export which is targeted by mischief of the House of Saud and its allies. They overtook 1.5mbd of Iran’s oil market share after the sanctions intensified in 2011 and are now seeking to sell oil to Iran’s traditional customers even for free to keep them satisfied. However, Tehran has been seeking to restructure its export plans given the new circumstances.
Since implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and lifting of sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports, Iranian Ministry of Petroleum is crowded by foreign delegations who make the trek to Tehran to hunt out cooperation opportunities heralding a promising future for the country’s economy especially in the oil and gas sector.
Despite allegations of most analysts, Iran has been able to bring its exports to 2mbd in less than 6 months after JCPOA’s implementation which is a record by itself.
By doing so, the country has not only baffled many analysts who denied its ability to double its exports in such a short period of time, it has also become a key player in the oil market.
The 2mbd glut in the oil market will not worsen by the Q3 of 2016 if Iran adds 1.5mbd to its exports and other producers keep their exports at the current levels and demand grows as it should. As a result, the prices will not change a lot by then.
Likewise, a number of OPEC and non-OPEC producers have unofficially agreed to freeze their export growth in a bid to curb further oil price slump.
Meanwhile, oil price slump has led to reduced investments in shale oil and gas projects and reduction of their production which is another reason that makes stabilization of prices at the current prices a mandatory choice for conventional producers.
Unlike other producers, Iran could tap fields it had to stop production from because of the sanctions, and add to its production and exports.
Besides, Iran enjoys a 1% share in the global gas export market and given the fact that its holds 18.2% of global gas reserves, the country’s share in gas exports will jump to at least 10% by 2025.
Despite relentless resistance of Saudi Arabia and its allies, the pressure of international sanctions is reducing on Iran; high-profile business delegations from around the globe are heading to Tehran to win a share in Iran’s market.
The visits are while economy is not in its favorable state in most other oil-producing countries that are eager to lure foreign investors to fund their oil and gas projects to raise their output to alleviate some of the pain caused by falling oil prices; their foreign exchange reserves are estimated to last no more than one or two years. Such producers are used to high-priced oil and have lived such luxurious lives that will bring them crises in the near future if they cannot cope with new oil prices.
Iran, however, remains the only place that, given its massive economic potentialities, can ensure return on foreign capital that would otherwise lose its value over time. However, investors are still juggling opportunities in the country and are sizing up the risks; the newly-unveiled oil contract mode, Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) could a good answer for skeptics, however.
The large number of incoming delegations to Tehran from around the world is telling enough for the notion that believing that “a ban-free Iran has smashed equations of its regional rivals”.

Islamic Republic of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani will lead a high ranking economic and political delegation to Islamabad later the week on Friday and Saturday. A big trade delegation including dozens of Iranian traders from private sector will accompany President Rouhani to Pakistan.

In an interview with IRNA, Governor State Bank of Pakistan(Central Bank of Pakistan), Ashraf Mahmood Wathra, said in past years Bank Melli of Iran had expressed interest for opening its branch in Pakistan. “We will be very happy to revive that request if Bank Melli approaches the State Bank of Pakistan,” he said.

He said in past times Pakistani banks used to have braches in Iran and Habib Bank and United Bank have never closed their representative offices in Iran in worst of the times. “I am sure Habib Bank and United Bank will be one of the first Pakistani banks to start branches in Iran after lifting of sanctions,” he said.

Head of the SBP said that during his meeting with the Iranian Ambassador, he told him that three of Pakistani banks have already visited Iran recently and they are at a very advanced stage of collaborating with the Iranian banks to start transactions.

“Our market is very excited, our businessmen are excited, many visits have already taken place and we are looking forward to reviving centuries old trade relationship,” he said.

Ashraf Mahmood Wathra added that Asian Currency Unit has been opened between Iran and Pakistan. He said at this point trade and business between Iran and Pakistan can be carried out in Euros, Japanese Yen, British Pound, in RMB, in all currencies except US dollars because part of the US sanctions are still there.

The official said the kind of support US government had extended for removal of UN sanctions on Iran is very positive, and one day they must be thinking of taking away their own sanctions on Iran.

“It was not only Iran losing, many economies like us, North American economies, and the European economies who were doing business with Iran were also losing,” he said.

‘Prahova province is the biggest oil-rich province of Romania and the country’s oil university is located in this province,’ Prahova governor-general said.

He said that Romania has skilled experts in oil and gas industry and it has had good cooperation with Iranian companies, adding, ‘We are willing to broaden this cooperation.’

In a relevant development in early March, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tehran and Bucharest were working on an economic roadmap aimed at boosting bilateral trade ties.

‘We agreed to hold the meeting of Iran-Romania Joint Economic Commission in Bucharest in the near future after a 12-year delay. We plan to formulate a roadmap for greater economic cooperation,’ Zarif said in a joint press conference with his Romanian counterpart Lazar Comanescu in Tehran.

Comanescu, for his part, referred to a meeting of some 100 Iranian and Romanian traders Tuesday morning, and said, ‘Good steps have been taken to move towards wider economic cooperation.’

‘We also agreed to expand cooperation between Iran and the Black Sea littoral states. Iranian firms can now cooperate with their European counterparts through this new corridor,’ he added.

Mohamed said that Malaysia continues to look at Iran as an important destination for Malaysian products.

The minister added that Malaysia has had wide trade relations with Tehran and a number of Malaysian companies are currently carrying out construction projects in Iran.

Based on official statistics, trade between Iran and Malaysia stood at $23 million last year.

‘We are aware that one or two other countries in the region are attempting to identify opportunities in the Iranian market which has once again joined the global economy,’ Mohamed said.

He also said that a high-profile Malaysian delegation is to visit Iran in a near future.

Hwang made the remarks during a luncheon meeting on Thursday with export company executives and the chief of the Korea International Trade Association, South Korean News Agency ‘Yonhap’ reported.

The South Korean government will make an effort to prop up exports and support local companies make inroads into untapped markets with growth potential, Hwang said.

South Korea’s outbound shipments plunged 12.2 percent in February from a year earlier. Exports have been on a steady decline since the first month of 2015 due to weak overseas demand amid a global economic slowdown and low oil prices.

As part of its efforts to bolster exports, the South Korean government plans to support local small and medium-sized enterprises so they can advance into foreign markets, Hwang said.

Resource rich Iran has started opening its market following the recent lifting of international sanctions.

‘The government will do its part to bolster the competitiveness of its top selling products,’ Hwang said, adding that cosmetics and agro-fishery goods are products with good export potential.

The South Korean prime minister added that the government will also pay attention to medical and cultural contents industries.

Hwang has held meetings with various business representatives regularly since taking office in June 2015 to discuss measures to revive Asia’s fourth largest economy.

Iran, the biggest economy outside the WTO, had signalled its intention to join as part of normalising its international trade relations once nuclear-related sanctions were lifted, Reuters reported.
“We are in the early stages but I think there is goodwill and engagement and I hope that the process will move as expeditiously as possible,” Roberto Azevedo was quoted saying at a media briefing in Cape Town.

‘We need to further broaden our trade relations,’ Khaji said on Wednesday, addressing the annual meeting of Beijing-Based Iranian Expatriates’ Chamber of Commerce.

Khaji voiced Iran’s readiness to remove the obstacles preventing the implementation of the approvals of Iran-China Joint Commission, and said, ‘Iran is willing to increase the volume of its trade transactions with Beijing.’

In October, Khaji said Tehran and Beijing share the common view that enhancing their ties would result in a much better outlook for both nations, and called on relevant officials and bodies to pave the ground for optimum utilization of the existing opportunities.

Addressing a gathering at the Iranian embassy in Beijing, Khaji said fortunately there are good potentials for cooperation between the two countries which enjoy historical background too.

He went on to say that presence of Iranians in different fields of science, culture, and economy in China is significant, and vowed to do his best to help the country’s tradesmen expand business with their Chinese counterparts.

Iran is currently China’s third largest supplier of crude, providing Beijing with roughly 12 percent of its total annual oil consumption.