Islam Times - UAE Eyes Investing in Iran's Cooperatives Sector: Envoy

Islam Times - Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Iran Saif Mohammed al-Zaabi said that his country is interested in expanding trade-economic cooperation with Iran.

Chairman of Iran Chamber of Cooperatives Bahman Abdollahi in his meeting with the UAE envoy to Tehran said that cooperatives have an important influential place in Iran.

Introducing the high capabilities and capacities of Iran’s cooperatives sector, Abdollahi emphasized that a considerable portion of the production activity belongs to the cooperatives sector.

Cooperatives have an important role in the field of producing the agricultural products, he said, adding that Iran’s Chamber of Cooperatives is seeking to lay ground for the export of the cooperatives’ products to the Persian Gulf littoral states, especially the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

He went on to add that about 65 percent of the agricultural products is produced by the cooperatives sector.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Abdollahi added that the cooperatives sectors have high capacities in other fields of economy such as petrochemical, industry, fisheries, tourism, etc.

He then pointed to the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)’s capacities and membership of Iran’s Chamber of Cooperatives in the Board of Directors of the International Co-operative Alliance and added that the alliance has more than 110 members and covers more than 1.2 billion population of the world.

The UAE envoy to Iran, for his part, said that the available statistics indicate that the trade ties between Iran and UAE has considerably increased and is on the trajectory growth.

Mohammed al-Zaabi noted that more than 122,000 Iranian businesspersons are busy active in the United Arab Emirates.

He pointed to the sanctions imposed against Iran and said that sanctions have created restrictions in enhancing trade and economic ties between the two countries.

The two countries have high potentials and capabilities to broaden their relations in all fields, especially in the fields of trade and economy, the envoy added.