Iran urges Indonesia to use Chabahar Port for exports

Seyyed Reza Fatemi Amin made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Deputy Chairperson of Indonesian House of Representatives Coordinator for Industry and Development Rachmat Gobel in Tehran on Saturday during which he also said that Indonesia can use Iran’s Chabahar Port as a regional hub for covering its export activities.

He put the current value of trade exchanged between the two countries of Iran and Indonesia at $1 billion and called for setting up a Working Group in line with the increasing volume of trade and economic exchanges between the two countries.

Iran and Indonesia have established amicable cultural and political relations with each other in the region, he said, adding, “It is hoped that the two countries would strengthen and deepen their cultural and political ties like economic relations.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Iranian minister of industry pointed to launching a Working Group and compiling a roadmap for boosting trade and economic exchanges between the two countries of Iran and Indonesia and stated that $2 billion worth of bilateral trade exchanges had been projected in the previous visit of Indonesian president to Iran in 2016.

Expressing interest in the rapid growth of economic relations between Iran and Indonesia, Fatemi Amin stipulated that economies of Iran and Indonesia are complementary to each other in a way that both countries need some of each other’s products.

Pointing out that Iran has very good transit capacities in the area of north-south corridor, he said that Russia is also interested in the development of this corridor by Iran, because this route is really reasonably priced.

Deputy Chairperson of Indonesian House of Representatives Coordinator for Industry and Development, for his part, said his trip to Tehran is to follow up on his country's previous consultations with the Iranian side to increase trade relations, and following up on the emphasis of the presidents of the two countries to deepen economic relations.

Referring to the presence of the media and Indonesian private sector during the Tehran visit, he said, "We also had various meetings with the private sector and Iranian technology companies and academics."

He also pointed to the capabilities and progress of Iran in knowledge-based and nanotechnology fields and admired Iran for that progress to obtain this advanced technology even under the sanctions.

Gobel  further expressed Indonesia's interest in using Iran's progress in the field of nanotechnology and knowledge based companies and added, "Through working together in these fields, especially in the field of health technologies, we can do very valuable work for both countries and the Islamic Ummah."