Baku, Azerbaijan, May 6
By Umid Niayesh - Trend:
An experts' delegation from the French giant carmaker Peugeot has paid a visit to Tehran to hold talks over the cooperation.
The French delegation arrived in Tehran on May 5 and is scheduled to hold talks with Iranian giant car manufacturer Iran Khodro (IKCO) during the three-day visit, Iran 's Fars news agency reported May 6.
The visit came one week after Hashem Yekeh Zareh, the managing director of the IKCO visited France and held negotiations with Peugeot company officials.
The visits are aimed on pursuing the issue of cooperation agreement between the two companies.
A letter of intent (LOI) between IKCO and Peugeot was supposed to be signed during the Yekeh Zareh's visit to France. The LOI is a document outlining an agreement between two or more parties before the agreement is finalized. It is not clear yet whether the LOI was signed or not.
Early in March Yekeh Zareh said that the IKCO and Peugeot have agreed on establishing a joint car manufacturing plant in Iran.
The Iranian carmaker will have a 50-percent share from the deal, Yekeh Zareh added.
The new company will produce new car models, he said, adding 30 percent of the jointly manufactured cars will be exported.
French automakers Renault SA and PSA Peugeot Citroën have taken initial steps toward resuming deliveries to Iran, previously one of their biggest markets.
Iran's auto industry has been a major casualty of penalties imposed over the Islamic republic's nuclear program, with production plummeting and workers laid off because of the ensuing economic slowdown.
US sanctions on the auto industry in 2013 were the main cause, on top of American and European bans on Iranian bank transactions abroad. The mentioned sanctions were lifted after an interim nuclear agreement was reached between Iran and world powers and a final accord is still on the horizon, raising the prospect of better times for the industry.
Edited by CN
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