Tehran, Iran, January 23
By Mehdi Sepahvand -- Trend:
In the course of President Hassan Rouhani's trip to Paris, Iran and France will discuss Peugeot, Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaber Ansari said.
Rouhani will visit Paris January 5 and it depends on France's approach whether or not a cooperation agreement will be signed with Peugeot, Ansari said, Fars news agency reported January 23.
Iran Khodro CEO Yekeh Zareh earlier said his company expects to have 50-percent investment by Peugeot to produce cars 30 percent of which will be export-bound. The remarks, however, were not ratified by Peugeot.
An experts' delegation from the French giant carmaker Peugeot paid a visit to Tehran to hold talks over the cooperation back in May.
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.
Peugeot models have been manufactured by Iran Khodro for over 20 years.