Africa-Press – Eritrea. IRAN has committed at promoting Iran’s trade ties with African countries, the continent it described as the “land of opportunities” due to its high economic potential and immense natural and talented human resources.
This was entailed in a statement released by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as he detailed the trip of President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi to Africa.
The trip marks the first visit by an Iranian president to the African continent in 11 years. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Uganda and other African countries in 2010.
This visit naturally aims to establish closer interaction with African countries and make various aspects of mutual relations more operational. President Raisi arrived in Uganda on Wednesday as part of his itinerary to three African countries. He also visited Kenya and will later travel to Zimbabwe.
While in Kenya, Raisi witnessed the signing of new MoUs and agreements in the areas of agriculture, livestock, culture and heritage, information, ICT, fisheries, housing, urban and metropolitan development with the Kenyan government before flying to Uganda.
In Uganda, President Raisi was due to hold meetings with President Yoweri Museveni and also engages with traders, business representatives, and economic officials from Iran and the host countries.
Aligned with the Iranian government’s policy of economic multilateralism, the visits aim to enhance Iran’s presence in the 600-billion US dollars African economy.
The planning for Raisi trip to Uganda started on July 6, 2022 with Dr Mahdi Safari, the Deputy Foreign Minister In Charge of Economic Diplomacy of the Islamic Republic of Iran meeting President Museveni at State House, Entebbe.
During the meeting, President Museveni welcomed the partnership by the government of Iran to support Uganda especially in the health sector and promised to work with them.
“For the general pharmaceuticals, we are ready to work with you in joint ventures for any medicine. The same with the vaccine,” Museveni said, adding that it will help Uganda develop her pathogenic industry which offers huge economic opportunities in therapeutics, diagnostics and the vaccines.
“We are already working on all those vaccines here but it will be good to work with you,” Museveni noted.
On trade, the President said Uganda has got a lot of production of goods including fresh products which Iran might be interested in and the two countries can exchange them in barter trade without going through the dollar.
During the meeting, both sides reiterated the necessity of increased economic, political and international cooperation between the two countries. It was also agreed that Iran would export medicine and medical equipment, nano technological, biotechnological, IT and orthopaedic equipment to Uganda.
The two countries also agreed to cooperate in the areas of banking, oil and gas and production of electric motorcycles and tractors in Uganda. Iran also agreed to dispatch a medical research group to Uganda to examine cooperation on cattle diseases.
Highlighting on the latest trip Minister Abdollahian said in the statement that President Raisi’s trip to Africa is intended to “promote economic diplomacy, strengthen political relations with friendly and aligned countries, and diversify the export destinations.”
“It is hoped that in the light of President Raisi’s Africa tour, grounds are paved for further enjoyment and expansion of cooperation between Iran and Africa especially in trade and economy. The next destination in the near future of President Raisi in Africa will be South Africa,” said Abdollahian.
Minister Abdollahian said Africa is the world’s largest continent after Asia and enjoys a special global political and economic significance in various aspects.
“Rich agricultural resources in the central and western parts of Africa, huge petroleum and mineral resources in the northern and eastern Africa and industrial attractions of the countries in the south of the continent have turned it into one of the world’s most lucrative economic zones and attractive tourism poles,” he described Africa.
Source: Daily News – Tanzania Standard Newspapers
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