TEHRAN: A group of senior Chinese economic officials have traveled to southern Iran to review investment opportunities.
The Chinese trade delegation arrived in the port city of Bandar Abbas on Monday.
The delegation includes officials from China’s Guangdong province, among them deputy governor Zhigeng Liu, , Iranian media reported.
Guangdong province is located in southern China and is seen as the most populous province in the country.
It is also seen as the richest provincial region in China in terms of total GDP.
“Holding talks with state and private sector officials and visiting Shahid Rajaee Port and the railway network, top the agenda of the two day visit,” the Chinese official said.
Zhigeng Liu also expressed the hope that cooperation agreements in diverse economic areas would be signed between Iranian and Chinese sides.
China is seen as Iran’s biggest economic partner. The Islamic Republic is currently providing nearly 12 percent of China’s annual oil consumption, standing as the third largest crude supplier of world’s second biggest economy.
Back in March, a senior Iranian trade official announced that Tehran and Beijing seek to o bring the level of their trade exchanges to $60 billion from the current $52 billion in a year or so.
“We are determined to raise the volume of our trade with China to $60 billion at the start of the Sixth [Five-Year Economic] Development Plan starting in March 2016,” the head of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Assadollah Asgarowladi was quoted by the Iranian media as saying.
