TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mine and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam-Hossein Shafei in a meeting with Ambassador of Finland to Tehran Mr. Keijo Norvanto said the Iran-Finland Joint Chamber of Commerce will start its activities in three weeks and expressed hope it would boost the economic and trade ties between the two countries.

In the meeting, Shafei deplored over the decline of Iran’s trade with EU states by $30b due to the U.S. sanctions that both parties should not pass it easily. He then said Finland is of the European states which enjoys high economic growth and level of public welfare, and then pointed to using the experience of this country by Iran in the current condition.

He expressed interests for using the experience of Finland in the fields of Aquatic animal industry and marine industries as well as appropriate water usage through the new methods, and said these fields are important for Iran because Iran is located on a massive dry arid area and it needs to take advantage of modern agro methods in the future and for this reason it can have good cooperation with Finland.

Then Finnish Ambassador Norvanto, for his part, pointed to the new government in Iran which is taking office and said the current condition is a very critical stage for Iran and Finland is waiting for the new government’s decisions in the field of economy.

He then pointed to the good relation between Tehran and Helsinki and pointed to the joint meetings of the two countries at the embassy and added that after some useful talks, one can hope that both countries take long stride towards picking up the bilateral trade relation. He added that the embassy is tasked to pick up the relations in all spheres especially in the economy and expressed hope after taking office of the new government, this path would continue.

Norvanto emphasized that expansion of economic relations of the two states requires identifying the important grounds for cooperation and termed it important more participations from the tradesmen of the two countries for receiving updated information from Iran and Finland’s economic condition.

Then Shafei said sanctions have had unpleasant effects on economic relations of Iran with other countries especially Finland but the future is bright for Iran that it can compensate the past. He said unfortunately sanctions have caused the trade between Iran and EU states to decline by $30b and it will affect the economy of both sides and one should not pass it easily.

He also welcomed Norvanto’s suggestion for boosting the level of knowledge of tradesmen of the two countries from the conditions in Finland and Iran.

Then Norvanto expressed hope by removal of the sanctions, the ground for expansion of trade relation of Iran and Finland would be provided.

Earlier in the day, Norvanto had meeting with Iranian business activists where the participants exchanged views for boosting bilateral cooperation.