(IRNA) - Iran's Minister of Housing and Urban Development Mohammad Saeidi-Kia arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus Friday night to attend an economic meeting.
The minister was welcomed at Damascus' international airport by Syrian Minister of Finance Muhammad al-Husayn, who expressed hope that Saeidi-Kia's visit would help remove certain obstacles in the way of Iran's investments in Syria, reports Trend.
Saeidi-Kia is scheduled to attend the second round of discussions of the Iran-Syria Joint Economic Commission.
The commission, which is in charge of promoting Iran-Syria economic relations, conducts its meetings twice a year on a rotating basis in Tehran and Damascus.
In addition to participating in the meeting, the Iranian minister is scheduled to inspect a number of projects jointly being carried out by Iranian and Syrian experts in that country, including construction of a 200-million-ton cement factory in Hamah province in eastern Syria, a reconstruction project for a power plant in Banias province, 250km northwest of Damascus, and a 60-million-dollar assembly line for Iran's Samand car in that country.
The Iran-Syria trade volume stood at USD 100 million last year while economic cooperation of the two capitals in the same period was estimated at USD 750 million.