The ground is ready for Iran and Germany to boost economic cooperation, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier says, adding that to this end the German government will support any kind of investment in Iran.
Steinmeier made the remarks in a meeting in Tehran with Iranian Industry, Mining, and Trade Minister Mohammad Reza Ne’matzadeh.
“Lifting of the sanctions against Iran will encourage German companies to increase investment in Iran. Over the past couple of years, the sanctions were a major hindrance to the expansion of bilateral ties,” he added.
“I am very optimistic about the future of relations between Tehran and Berlin,” Steinmeier said.
---- Iran welcomes long-term German investment
The Iranian minister said for his part that Iran welcomes long-term investment by German companies in different fields of industrial, mineral, and commercial industries.
Germany is one of the main trading partners of Iran in the European Union, Ne’matzadeh said, adding that more than 50 percent of industrial needs of Iran were met by Germany before the imposition of sanctions.
“We are currently negotiating with many companies in order to attract foreign investment as soon as the sanctions are lifted,” he said.
Michael Tukas, the head of Iran-Germany Chamber of Commerce, had previously stated that the immediate prospect of sanctions relief would rise Germany-Iran trade to €6 billion in 2016.
According to the formal statistics issued by Germany’s Foreign Affairs, Iran’s imports from Germany in 2014 showed 30 percent growth in comparison to 2013 and the volume of bilateral trade increased 27 percent.
German Ambassador to Tehran Michael Freiherr von Ungern-Sternberg has already said that German companies are keen to boost links with Iran and directly invest in the country.
Eric Schweitzer, president of the German Chamber of Commerce (DIHK), said in July that his country plans to double trade with Iran to more than five billion euros in the short-term and to ten billion euros in the mid-term.
We expect shortly to double the bilateral trade to more than five billion euros - and in medium term to ten billion euros. In 2005, we had a trade volume of five billion euros. In 2014, the two-way trade was only 2.7 billion euros.
Germany was the 14th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.
Iran exported $354.17 million of non-oil goods to Germany and imported $2.33 billion of non-oil goods from the country.