In the “Iran - Eurasia Economic Union Trade Opportunities Conference ”, held by the International Relations and Marketing Department of Esfahan Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA), it was emphasized on coherency, target minded and consortium manner as  the right channel to entering this market.
In this conference, Masoud Golshirazi, President of ECCIMA, pointed out that the current economic war has created opportunities for economic activists. He continued: “reducing dependency on oil revenues and paying more attention to the private sector at this critical period would improve the production in Iran.”
President of ECCIMA emphasized that with a proper plan, the private sector can increase its 15% share of the economy to 50%. He added: “With respect to the sanctions, in order to maintain and develop businesses, markets that are less affected by these sanctions should be looked into.”
Masoud Golshirazi remarked that with a good planning, Eurasia could be used as a market with desirable potentials. He said that unfortunately Esfahan’s share of trade with Eurasia was insignificant and called for a reconsideration of the goods and items considered in the initial agreement. In addition he pointed to export development as the only way to confront pressures caused by sanctions and added: “according to Supreme Leader’s speech, bypassing sanctions is a tactic and a strategy should be adopted to escape sanctions.”
Golshirazi named steel, mining, and agriculture as the export priorities of Esfahan Province in the past and said: “although the largest volume of Eurasia’s trade with the world belongs to Russian Federation, the share of Esfahan export to Russia is 0.4% of the country. He also cited weaknesses in international shipping, lack of export knowledge, lack of active export management companies, and lack of export-oriented products as barriers for exporting products to Eurasia Economic Union.
President of ECCIMA, called Eurasia market as an inevitable export market and said: “while Esfahan’s share in the national economy is 10-12%, its share of export is 5% to 6%”. He further said: “Esfahan Chamber of Commerce in the ninth period of its activities, in order to increase export and facilitate the process of economic affairs, identified several markets as the main export markets of the province and holding “Export Marathon Conference”, “Export Accelerators” and “Iran - Eurasia Economic Union Trade Opportunities Conference” have been part of this mission.”
Masoud Golshirazi, President of ECCIMA, announced the launch of Esfahan-Muscat direct flight to facilitate Esfahan Businessmen trip to Oman.
Following that, Davoud Mirzakhani, Assistant to Minister of Energy for Permanent Economic Cooperation Commission of Iran and Russian Federation, emphasized that about 76% of the Eurasia economy belongs to Russia and in terms of population, area, GDP and trade volume it is a very favorable market for Iran.
Mirzakhani mentioned 4 target markets within Russia, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tatar Stan, and Bashkortostan, as well as north Caucasus. He said: “the agreement between Iran and Eurasia would help to remove non-tariff barriers and improve relations with northern neighbors.
The Assistant to Minister of Energy further advised using free zones to trade with Russia, and emphasized that for successful entry to Eurasian market we must move in a coherent, targeted, and consortium way which Esfahan act as a pilot for other provinces in this field.
Mirzakhani mentioned to pharmaceutical products, agricultural products, detergents, ceramic tiles, bags and shoes, flowers and tourism as the export advantaged products to Russia and pointed out: “As Esfahan is one of the tourism hubs of the country, it is necessary to make good use of this capacity.” He described the presence of 20 million Muslims in Russia as a huge potential in the halal food sector and added: “unfortunately, we have not been successful in this market due to non-centralized production.”
Furthermore, Hossein Kakhaki, Director General of the international customs cooperation office, while presenting a report on customs regulations said: “the Eurasia Economic Union was formed to improve the cooperation and competitiveness of national economy and to create sustainable development which can finally cause enhancement of living conditions of people.”
He called more job opportunities, more competition in production, and tariff discount as the strong points of Eurasia Economic Union and added: “Reducing US Currency dependency, facilitating trade between Iran and the member countries of the Union, reducing the impacts of US sanctions imposed on Iran as well as enhancing Iran’s role in the international North-South Freight Corridor are benefits of Iran’s membership in the Economic Union.”
Kakhaki reported that the export values of Iran to Eurasia in the last 2 months was 207 million dollar.
Taghi Taghipour, Director General of Quality Assessment of Export-Import goods of National Standard Organization, in this conference referred to Esfahan Province as one of the top provinces in the country in terms of qualified products. He announced that the creation of a Standard Organization Support Package to boost production. “The intermediary link of export, production, and sustainable occupation is quality and standard” Taghipour Said.
At the beginning of the conference, Mirhadi Seyyedi, a Member of the Faculty of the Institute for Business Studies and Researches, emphasized: “Agreements cannot be concluded without modern interaction with other countries.” He called the Eurasia agreement as the most comprehensive and unique agreements Iran has ever signed and explained that the Eurasia Union has a total of $866 billion in trade and Russia has a major role in the union with $ 680 billion dollars.
Seyyedi highlighted that Iran’s most important opportunities under the agreement are improvement of market access by reducing tariffs and removing non-tariff barriers, improvement of business disciplines and a stable relationship, increase of investment opportunities and technology transfer, practicing more trade free trades and gaining experience of working with other countries. For conclusion of his speech, the Faculty Member of the Institute for Business Studies and Researches said: “we need to change our attitudes in the world because maintaining and upgrading our current production system requires the introduction of global engagement and strengthening this interaction.
Moreover in this conference, Keyhan Abbasian, Director of Relations with Members of ECCIMA and Abbas Salah, Business Analysis Expert of Export Development office of Agriculture Ministry, respectively presented tips on how to adjust the economic tariff codes with the province advantageous goods for export, create export opportunities for industries, and export agricultural products and related laws and Regulations.