Korea-Iran Cooperation
The Korean government will restart economic cooperation channels with Iran and put a spur to Corporate Korea’s advancement into the Iranian Market by dispatching a large-scale economic delegate.
The government announced on Feb. 25 that it will hold the 11th Korea-Iran Economic Cooperation Conference with the participation of relevant organizations from both countries in Teheran, Iran on February 29 (local time). Joo Hyung-hwan, Minister of Industry, Trade and Resources of Korea will head up the delegate. The conference is a pan-national economic cooperation body to discuss bilateral economic issues. The event will resume ten years after its tenth meeting in 2006.
The conference is expected to revamp the systematic framework of the cooperation between Korea and Iran in the overall economy such as finance and industry which have slackened. The conference will have a deep discussion about cooperation direction and subsequent projects in six divisions –- finance, industry and trade, energy and resources, construction and infrastructure, health and medical service and finally culture and ICT.
The government will also send a large scale private economic delegate consisting of those from Korean organizations and companies that have already made a foray into Iran. They are from 39 large businesses, six public organizations, 16 industrial groups and 27 small and medium-sized enterprises. Minister Joo will meet Iranian ministers of industrial mineral trade, energy and petroleum among other people and ask for the expansion of cooperation between the two governments and Korean companies’ participation in local projects in Iran.
“Korea’s economic cooperation with Iran is a mid-to long-term plan that needs several decades to bear fruit,” minister Joo said. “We will focus not on simply increasing trade but on laying the foundation for economic cooperation.”