www.gulfnews.com An Iranian tourism delegation held a roundtable meeting with their Saudi counterparts at the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry to promote tourism and investment opportunities in Iran.
The head of the delegation, Mahdi Jahangeri, proposed establishing a joint Saudi-Iranian tourism company that would have a branch in Iran and a branch in Saudi Arabia that would facilitate tourism packages and investment projects in both countries for other companies. Talking about the various attractive and historical sights in Iran, he pointed out that there is a shortage of hotels, recreational centers and infrastructure projects open for foreign investment.
Mohammed Al-Harbi, general director of the Services Sector Department at the JCCI, welcomed the delegation and the opportunity for greater economic and trade cooperation and exchange visits between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Jahangeri spoke of the many tourism attractions in Iran and the incentives for tourists including offering entry visas at the airport. He urged Saudi businessmen to take advantage of the need for hundreds of hotels, entertainment complexes and infrastructure projects around the country to invest in Iran especially under the new foreign investment support laws and regulations approved by the government.
The new system includes encouraging mechanisms for investment, financing and security including guaranteeing the foreign investor’s capital. However, a Saudi businessman who was in Iran recently said that there is no transparency in terms of the laws and regulations and bank loans, but Jahangeri replied that there is and all information is available. He invited the businessmen to attend the international investment conference that would be held in Iran in three months.
Another complaint by the Saudi businessmen is that credit cards are not used in Iran, which adversely affects tourism development business travel.
Iran’s consul general in Jeddah, Mohammad Sibeveyh, agreed and said that there are discussions underway to resolve this problem. In the meantime, he said that agreements were made between Iran and Bahrain and UAE for example to conduct transactions through bank branches in the countries that can also be adopted with Saudi Arabia. He also said that there are negotiations over a proposal to establish a Saudi-Iranian bank by a committee of experts.
The secretary general of Iran Hotel Association, Khosrow Iranpour, told Arab News that Iran has a 20-year plan for the country and it has a special emphasis on the tourism sector. The first phase of the four-phase 20-year plan began this year and aims at increasing incoming tourists by 1.5 million to 2 million and focuses on providing hospitality services, training of manpower, constructing modern hotels and overall quality standard facilities to satisfy customers. “We are focusing on attracting tourists from the Organization of the Islamic Conference member countries. Saudi Arabia is the gateway to these countries,” he said. |