Page 44 - IRANRptJun19

According to Cayabatmaz, Turkey has the potential to sell up to 10,000 properties to Iranians over the next couple of years.
He noted that Istanbul is the favourite city of Iranians in Turkey.
“They also buy properties in the province of Antalya on the Mediterranean coast and the northwestern province of Bursa which looks like northern parts of Iran. Iranians also buy real estate in the Black Sea province of Trabzon,” Cayabatmaz added..
9.1.8 Retail sector news
The Iranian Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) has called on Russia to facilitate the entry of Iranian goods, proposing that Iran and Russia allocate supermarket chain quotas for each other’s products.
Iran has already acceded to a temporar y free trade zone under the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) , but Iranian branded products, including fast moving consumer goods, are generally failing to cross into Russia.
Mohammad Reza Karbasi, head of the international department of ICCIMA, made the quotas proposal in a meeting with Rustam Haiderovich Zhiganshin, trade representative at the Russian embassy in Tehran. The plan, he said, could boost annual bilateral trade to $5bn compared to the present volume of around $1bn.
The Iranian official also called for trade connections to be arranged between Iranian and Russian provinces as well as the establishment of joint chambers of commerce between EEU member states.
The meeting was further used by Karbasi to lobby the Russian trade official to consider constructing a logistical centre at Astrakhan, located on the banks of the Volga river in Russia close to where it discharges into the Ca spian Sea, for Iranian goods and commodities.
9.1.9 Healthcare sector news
A Swiss payment channel that will help Iran to import medicines is ready to operate but is awaiting capital to launch, Otagh Online (“Chamber” Online) has reported the president of the Iran-Switzerland Joint Chamber of Commerce as saying.
Switzerland has for several years operated a distinct business channel for Iran-bound medical consignments, accounting for around 60% of Swiss medical exports sent to the Islamic Republic. However, with the reimposition of sanctions by the US last year, Switzerland found itself having to apply for a special sanctions-waiver to cover the trade mechanism from the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
“The channel is ready, its characteristics have been announced, but it’s waiting for the deposit of necessary funds from Iran,” Sharif Nezam-Mafi, president of the Iran-Switzerland Joint Chamber of Commerce, told the news outlet.
“There is no Iranian money in the channel yet”, he said.
“There is no money from Iran in Europe, much of the Iranian funds are still in India, Iraq, China and South Korea,” Nezam-Mafi added, referring to some of the countries the US is temporarily allowing to continue purchasing Iranian crude oil with no threat of sanctions.
44 IRAN Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com