TEHRAN (Iran News) –Italy’s Role in Iran’s Infrastructural Developments Reviewed. On the eve of celebrating 160 years of Iran-Italy diplomatic relations, the Embassy of Italy in Tehran on Wednesday screened a documentary called “Rome-Shahbazan” to show how strong has been the relation of these two countries through the years in all fields since the start of their diplomatic ties.
Italian Ambassador Giuseppe Peronne hosted the screening of this documentary which reviewed the influence of Italians in Iran’s infrastructural developments especially in the railroad sector. Head of the Economic and Commercial office of the Embassy of Italy David Balloni and Italy’s Cultural Attache Yaroslava Romanova also accompanied the ambassador in this event where major performance of the Italians in Iran’s infrastructural projects were reviewed.
The documentary directed by Mohammadreza Sahebi reviewed the history of Italian’s presence in trans-Iran railway project in the 1930s. Mohammad Mohsenian in this documentary and research goes in depth of the Trans-Iran railway system and role of foreigners in it with a special attention on the role of Italians.
The Rome-Shahbazan documentary is a thorough research on the authenticity and finesse of work by the Italians during their presence in Iran for construction of railway in the 1930. Despite British and Russian obstructionism in building trans-Iranian railway, Italians could play a part in fulfilling Iranians’ long-held dream of the national railway.
The cooperation between Iran and Italy is not limited only to the cooperation in the railway sector as both countries have cooperated in other fields like oil and gas, machinery and other industrial fields like steel. Italians have had a great role in Iran’s industrial development as it was shown in the documentary and they have been one of the major buyers of Iran’s crude oil which has been affected by the sanctions in recent years.
Meanwhile Italy’s First Secretary Mr. Balloni briefed the participants in the event of major fields of cooperation between the two countries, saying that Italy has played a part in most infrastructural projects in Iran and it has continued even in the sanctions era. He reiterated that Iran and Italy’s trade and economic relations have always been good and based on the mutual respect.
He noted that Italy has transferred technology and knowhow to Iran, admitting that sanctions have created problems for this cooperation but Italian companies still are eager to cooperate.
Balloni added that Italy’s trade relation with Iran dates back to the 1930s and since then Italy has been a strong economic partner of Iran. He then pointed to some major economic and trade cooperation between the two states like the arrival of Italy’s AGIP Company (the current ENI Company) to Iran’s oil and gas projects in the 1950s. He said AGIP started cooperation with Iran’s oil ministry based on the 70-30 percent contract which was produced for the first time because before that, oil and gas contracts were mostly signed on the 50-50 bases. He then named some oil and gas projects wherein the Italians have been involved.
He then pointed to the magnificent role of Italian companies in Iran’s steel industry, adding that the Italian Company Dinieli has played a key role in developing Iran’s steel industry through construction and transfer of technology as well as educational cooperation.
He also said Italy has good cooperation in the machinery sector with Iran as Italian companies are still cooperating with some of their Iranian counterparts. He also said Italians are also active in Iran’s digital technology and they play a key role in one of Iran’s famous online shopping centers Digikala.
Then one of the guests in the event from Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization hailed Italy for its cooperation with Iran even during the sanctions and said the trade volume between the two countries stood at $1b in 2020.
