Interview: West not to compete with Chinese companies in Iran: official

The West would not be a rival to the Chinese investors after a potential removal of sanctions against Iran, the chairman of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce said.

"There will be no problem for the Chinese businessmen. The West will not enter Iran in the next two or three years, even if we come to an (nuclear) agreement with the West," Asadollah Asgaroladi told Xinhua in an interview.

Lifting sanctions will take time and the trade volume with China will increase every year, he said, adding that China knows well how to compete.

Trade mechanisms with China are more convenient for Iranians than those of the West, because the payment process for goods and services from and to China are easier, and there is no risk of money transfer even if the western banking sanctions stay there, said the Iranian official who has been in business with China for over 50 years.

He expressed optimism about the prospect of Iran-China relations, saying that China is now the second biggest economy in the world and is going to be the first in the near future.

"When we check the business volume of China with foreign countries, it is about 3,100 billion U.S. dollars. We have to check how we can increase the volume of mutual trade, because our industry needs investment," he said.

"We are inviting the Chinese investors to Iran, because when we build a joint company, even the political storm will not affect it," said Asgaroladi, who has been the chairman of the chamber since 2001.

"We have to consider the long-term business with China and we have to consider the prospect of relations for the next 20 or 30 years," he said, arguing that Iran will not have good relations with the West even if the western sanctions against the country are lifted.

Besides Iran's oil and gas exports to China, petrochemical products, metal or iron rocks, agricultural products and handmade carpet are also the items that China welcomes, he said.

"We now ship more than 10 billion U.S. dollars worth of petrochemicals to China annually and it is possible to increase it to 20 billion in the future," he added.

In the previous Iranian calendar year which ended on March 20, Iran shipped 65,000 tons of pistachio, nearly 800 million U.S. dollars in value, to China, he said, adding that nearly 100 kilos of Iranian saffron were also shipped to the country in the same period.

Further, China's market is open to Iran's handmade carpet, and it has had many fairs and exhibitions for the Iranian carpets, he said. "We sell about 300 million U.S. dollars worth of carpets in China annually and we are planning to have three or four exhibitions just for carpets, in Urumqi, Shanghai, Xiamen and Guangzhou this year."

Highlighting the advantages of doing business with China compared with the West, Asgaroladi said that costs in Europe are higher than in China.

He said his institution, with more than 60,000 members, has played an important role in increasing the trade level between the two countries from 500 million U.S. dollars in 2001 to 50 billion U.S. dollars in 2014. They aim to increase the value to more than 70 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2016, he stressed.

"We are doing well in the chamber, we send three to four delegations to China every year, and we invite six delegations from China... and we hope to continue," said Asgaroladi.

As for China's "Silk Road" Initiative, he said that Iran has also been a pioneer in this regard and has proposed three secretary offices to be established in Europe, Iran and China, which would tackle the issues in close cooperation and coordination around the project. Endit