European companies rushing to Iranian market
By Sara Rajabova
As the nuclear talks between Iran and the West have speed up, the European companies rushing to enter the Iranian market.
Iranian government figures showed that German exports to Iran rose 30 percent last year to 2.4 billion euros.
Sales of machinery, agricultural and pharmaceutical products lifted bilateral trade to its sharpest growth in a decade, data by the Federal Statistics Office of Germany showed.
Germany, which is Iran’s traditional biggest trade partner, sees big prospects for its companies if Tehran signs a final agreement with international negotiators.
Volker Treier of Germany's DIHK chambers of trade and commerce foresees exports to Iran to double to 5 billion euros, Press TV reported.
The French companies are also willing to return the country, once the final nuclear deal with world powers is achieved. The country’s two major carmakers were forced to leave Iran’s huge market in 2012 amid Western sanctions.
Renault is reportedly vying for 45 percent of Pars Khodro's shares which are mainly held by the Iranian automaker Saipa.
Besides, French automaker PSA Peugeot-Citroen is holding negotiations to resume its activities in Iran, after they were halted due to the sacntions.
In July 2014, Iran’s leading auto manufacturer, Iran Khodro Company (IKCO), announced plans to cooperate with French automakers, Renault and PSA Peugeot Citroen, to produce four new vehicles in Iran.
However, some Iranian officials consider that the Europeans should pay for falling in line with the Americans in punishing the country with sanctions. One MP has called for Renault and Peugeot Citroen to be kept out of Iran’s auto market since they were among the first foreign entities which pulled out when sanctions were imposed on Tehran.
Earlier, world oil giants, including Royal Dutch Shell, British Petroleum (BP), Malaysia's Petronas, Spain's Repsol, Russia's second-largest oil producer, LUKOIL, France's Total and Italy's Eni have expressed interest in returning to the Iranian market following a partial relief in the anti-Iran sanctions that come after Geneva deal in November.
Iran sits atop one of the world's largest natural gas reserves of over 33 trillion cubic meters and, in the near future, the country is set to increase its gas processing and transfer capacity to one billion cubic meters per day from the current level of 600 million cubic meters per day.
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Sara Rajabova is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on
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