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Economic
Relations:
As China's booming economy has turned the country into one
of the biggest oil and gas consumers in the world, Iran, as
OPEC's second-largest crude oil supplier, can only be a
natural partnerfor China.
China, which has become the world's second largest oil
importer over the past decade, currently gets 13.6% of its
oil imports from Iran. Beijing also wants to step up imports
of Iran's natural gas. Trade between the two countries hit a
record of $7.6 billions in 2004 that Iran's export worth $4
billions and they expect to reach $9.5 billions in 2005.
Iran has an estimated 26.6 trillion-cubic-meter gas
reservoir; the second largest in the world. At present a
comprehensive development including exploration and
drilling, petrochemical and gas industries, pipelines and
other services, is expected in the fields related to oil
industries.
In the long term, Beijing also hopes to secure a pipeline
project in Iran taking oil 386 kilometers to the Caspian Sea
where it could link with another planned pipeline from
Kazakhstan to China.
China and Iran are currently cooperating on 100-odd
different projects. Meanwhile Iran's increasing appetite for
consumer goods is bound to provide huge opportunities for
Chinese companies eager to expand overseas. Chinese firms
are
active in Iran in the fields of metro, electricity dam
building, cement plants, steel mills, railway, shipbuilding,
transport, oil and gas and refinery.
The Chinese firms are also cooperating with Iranian partners
to develop ports, jetty, airport and metro in six Iranian
cities and mines development projects. Iranian economy is
growing and the government backs foreign investment in
various sectors by guaranteeing the capital invested in
different projects as well as the associated proceeds of
foreign capital. It should be noted that with new
legislation Iran has accelerated process of foreign
investment.
The new geopolitical situation in the region urges both
countries to cooperate for more security and development in
West and CentralAsia.
Tehran-Beijing relations are at an excellent level and
senior officials of Iran and China are holding regular
consultation on bilateral, regional and international
cooperation. |