Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 7
By Milad Fashtami, Temkin Jafarov - Trend:
European companies are showing readiness to invest in Iran's communications sector, Iran's minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mahmoud Vaezi told Trend on Nov.7.
Vaezi said that in the past few years, because of the sanctions, only Chinese firms participated in the tenders of Iran's communications projects, however now, considering that the nuclear negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries are in the right path, European companies are also entering Iran's market.
"We have introduced a couple of projects, and European countries have expressed their interest in taking part in the tenders," he explained.
Vaezi went on to note that Asian and European firms have purchased the necessary documents to take part in the tenders in the past 7-8 months.
"We are currently negotiating with the companies," he said, without giving the names of the companies.
Vaezi further said that in the future, Iran will only work with the companies that follow all the necessary international standards, and have competitive prices.
There is no detailed report about the Chinese firms' participation in Iran's communications projects, however the statistics released by Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines show that in the first six months of the current Iranian calendar and fiscal year (March 21 - September 22) China with over $222 million was Iran's biggest supplier of cell phone transmitters and receivers, except for BTS.
According to western media outlets, China's Huawei Company provided Iran with the GPRS technology. The company announced in 2011 that it would not take any more projects in Iran. The company was also under criticism from Iranian officials over delays.
ILNA News Agency reported in 2010 that Chinese company's share of Iran's communications market is around 20 percent.
The western countries have always been critical of Chinese companies' trades with Iran in the communications sector, due to sanctions imposed on Tehran over the nuclear issue.
Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council comprising of China, France, Russia, Britain, the US Plus Germany) sealed an interim deal in Geneva on November 24, 2013 to pave the way for the full resolution of the West's decade-old dispute with Iran over the country's nuclear energy program, Press TV reported.
The Geneva deal took effect on January 20 and expired on July 20. However the two sides agreed to extend their talks for four months till Nov. 24 to reach a permanent deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program.
In exchange for Iran agreeing to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities, the US and its allies agreed to lift some of the existing sanctions against Tehran.
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