Baku, Azerbaijan, Apr.12
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran is ready to expand economic and trade ties with South Korea.
Iranian Deputy Economy Minister Behrouz Alishiri said Iran is ready to boost all-out ties with South Korea in all economic and trade areas, especially in joint venture projects, Iran's Fars news agency reported on April 12.
Alishiri made the remarks in a meeting with his South Korean counterpart on the sidelines of the three-day joint annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) which opened in Washington on April 11.
The Korean official, for his part, expressed readiness to encourage Korean companies to increase activities in Iran. He also expressed hope that cooperation between private sectors of the two countries will be expanded.
South Korea said on March 11 that it is ready to authorize transactions with Iran in the East Asian country's service sector following partial relief in the sanctions against the Islamic Republic that came based on an interim deal between Tehran and the P5+1.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency cited the country's Finance Ministry as saying that the decision will affect the firms that have either a previous export record with Iran or are engaged in service sector business in Iran's domestic markets.
South Korean companies will be allowed to do 11 types of business with Iran in the service sector including in management, consulting and designing areas, according to the ministry.
The sanctions relief provided to Iran heralds lots of "business opportunities" for South Korean firms, the Korean news website The Chosun Ilbo reported earlier.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany signed the interim deal in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013. The two sides started implementing the agreement on January 20 and aim to continue the negotiations in order to reach a final comprehensive deal over Tehran's nuclear energy program.
Under the Geneva agreement, the sextet agreed to provide Iran with some sanctions relief in exchange for Tehran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities during a six-month period.