Many world states asking for improving economic ties with Iran

Chairman of Iran's Chamber of Commerce Gholam Hossein Shafeyee said an increasing number of world states are contacting Iran to further develop their economic relations with Tehran after the endorsement of the Geneva deal in November. "What we are feeling after the preliminary negotiations now is that the atmosphere has changed a lot and the Islamic Republic of Iran is welcomed extraordinarily and we are witnessing abundant contacts and negotiations by other countries and think that the process has positive effects on the situation of (our) foreign economic ties," Shafeyee told FNA on Tuesday. He said that visits by Iranian officials to different countries have also had positive achievements for Iran's economy, including the recent endorsement of a contract with Indonesia for building refineries in that country. "An opening has occurred in our foreign trade and we assess this trend as positive," Shafeyee said. A senior energy official announced earlier this month that Iran plans to build half a dozen oil refineries in the Southeast Asian country of Indonesia. "A joint Iran-Indonesia consortium will take charge of the construction of these refineries," Head of Oil Products Exporters Union Hassan Khosrojerdi told FNA. He noted that the total refining capacity of these oil refineries will stand at 300,000 barrels per day. The contract between Iran and Indonesia was signed after Iran and the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany) sealed a six-month Joint Plan of Action on November 24 to lay the groundwork for the full resolution of the West’s decade-old dispute with Iran over the latter's nuclear energy program. In exchange for Tehran’s confidence-building bid to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the Sextet of the world powers agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran and impose no nuclear-related sanctions on Iran during the six-month period.