Business news

29 Sep 2021

Brest Oblast, Iran seek to expand interregional contacts

BREST, 29 September (BelTA) – Brest Oblast and Iran will draft an interregional cooperation roadmap. Such an agreement was reached by Brest Oblast Governor Yuri Shuleiko and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Iran to Belarus Saeed Yari during their meeting in Brest on 29 September, BelTA has learned.

Yuri Shuleiko emphasized that Brest Oblast is interested in closer cooperation with Iran. “We have everything in place to make our cooperation more vibrant. Brest Oblast is home to big meat processing companies that have halal certificates. We are ready to discuss product assortment, prices and logistics with potential buyers from Iran. We are also interested in selling sawn timber and furniture, and buying cotton and semi-finished products from sheep wool. We produce a lot of berries that are not common for the Iranian market, for example, blueberries. We can export them chilled and frozen,” the Brest Oblast governor said.

Saeed Yari noted that he also sees many opportunities for forging new contacts. Speaking about the main areas of cooperation, the diplomat mentioned seafood and fish supplies, trade in dairy products, export of wood products and tourism. The Iranian side proposes to consider establishing sister-city relations between the regions.

“We have studied the potential and capacity of Brest Oblast. We believe that the region will be able to establish cooperation with Zanjan Province. This is an agricultural and industrial center of Iran. Two more provinces - Gilan Province and Hormozgan Province - are known for their seafood production and fishing. We will implement everything that we have discussed at the meeting today. We hope that by the end of this year we will be able to forge the necessary contacts between our regions,” the Iranian diplomat said.

The parties also discussed a possibility of arranging online negotiations between the regional authorities, as well as business circles. A roadmap is to be drafted to find areas of mutual interest.