Iranian Delegation visits Jeddah

Saturday, 03 November 2007
By Adel Al-Malki
JEDDAH - An Iranian delegation has begun its visit to the Jeddah Chamber for Commerce and Industry to promote bilateral trade relations with Saudi Arabia.
The delegation includes the president of Iran's chambers of commerce, a top tourism official, and influential businessmen. Spokesman Ahmad Al-Ghamdi said during the visit, the delegation discussed increased networking of the two countries' chambers of commerce between the two countries to increase bilateral trade and investment by removing the stumbling blocks to economic cooperation. The delegation discussed a number of topics relating to navigation, shipping and import of agricultural products, especially Iranian rice.
"The delegation will discuss ways to promote exhibitions for industrial products in the two countries and to reactivate the Iranian exhibition in Jeddah on an annual basis," Al-Ghamdi said.
Saleh Al-Turki, the head of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the volume of trade between the Kingdom and Iran jumped from SR250 million in 2000 to SR2.5 billion in 2005, and continuing this growth rate in the volume of exchange is one of the key objectives.
Al-Turki explained that the Iranian delegation looks forward to continued growth of current trade, especially with promising opportunities provided by the many Iranian products, which combined with access to the Saudi market is a "recipe for success."
The visit of the Iranian delegation came on the sidelines of the first Islamic tourism forum in Jeddah last week.