Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Iran becomes Germany's top trade partner in Mideast: official

IRNA:
Iran has outpaced the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to become Germany's number one trading partner in the Near and Mideast region, a leading German trade official announced in an Iran investment conference, hosted by the Iranian embassy in Berlin on Tuesday. READ MORE

"Among 20 Near and Mideast countries, Iran has become Germany's number one trading partner as German exports to Iran topped 3.574 billion euros and imports (from Iran) reached 391 million euros," said the chairman of the German Near and Middle East Association (NUMOV), Werner Schoeltzke.

"Nobody expected that (Iran-German) economic relations would develop so quickly and to this extent," added the official who pointed to Hermes export credit insurance coverage as one of the main reasons for the growing bilateral trade volume.