Top Iran trade team steps out of the cold, warms up to Indian market opportunity

A 40-member team, including three Deputy Ministers, heads of Iranian business associations and industrialists, will be here from March 4 to 7 to explore joint venture opportunities, attract investments and showcase a country that has become a pariah for many nations around the world.

The visitors will take part in a day-long seminar on opportunities and advantages for trade between the two countries, where speakers include G P Hinduja, President of the Hinduja Group, and Ranjit Shahani, President of Novartis India Ltd.

The team will be in Mumbai close on the heels of a visit to New Delhi by Iranian Economy and Finance Minister Danesh Jafari in January and that of a 12-member Confederation of Indian Industry delegation to Tehran last month to boost business links.

Indian industrialists and External Affairs Ministry officials said it was not just the Iranians who are keen to forge stronger business links with India. The desire was mutual and business was quietly prospering despite the unhappiness of New Delhi’s new friends in Washington, they said.

“There are tremendous business opportunities in Iran but there is a lack of awareness,” said Vijay G. Kalantri, President of the All India Association of Industries, one of the organisers of Wednesday’s seminar.

“They are located very strategically, prices are very competitive and they are very keen to develop relations.”

Some analysts say that Iran badly needs to build such relations as it seeks to integrate its economy with the rest of the world but is handicapped by US and UN sanctions over its nuclear ambitions.

Western diplomats have in recent months said that the sanctions have begun to hurt Iran and estimates have put unemployment at a high of 10 percent and Inflation at 19 percent. Soaring Oil prices have been the only saving grace for the country which holds the world’s second-largest reserves of oil and natural gas.

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