Iran welcomes Chinese trade co-op: envoy

The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes cooperation with Chinese companies in its progressive economic development plans, Iranian Ambassador to China Javad Mansouri stated on Tuesday.

In a meeting with the member of China's National People's Congress attended by the Chairman of Sinotruk Company Ma Chunji, the Iranian envoy said Iran's strategic location can be a reliable route for Chinese companies to access regional markets.

Mansouri referred to the growing economic cooperation between Iran and China, predicting the two-way trade would reach $30 billion by the end of 2009.

Sinotruk has so far exported some 16,000 trucks to Iran, according to IRNA.

Mansouri called on Chinese firms to observe international standards in manufacturing high quality products with competitive prices.

Ma put the value of the company's trade contracts with Iran at about 200 million dollars and said Sinotruk will launch an assembly line in Iran's Fars province in the near future.

"China is currently Iran's main economic partner in Asia and also Iran's third leading trade partner in the world," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at the Iran-China trade cooperation conference in Tehran on May 10.

Mottaki noted that the level of trade between the two countries increased from $400 million in 1994 to $29 billion in 2008 and said this shows Tehran-Beijing economic relations have grown at an average annual rate of 40 percent over the past few years

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