| Commerce Minister Mohammad Shariatmadari said Friday that political resolve exists in France to expand all-out ties with Iran. Talking to IRNA, Shariatmadari said France`s political will to promote relations with Iran was quite clear in his talks with senior French officials. He said Iran`s cooperation with three European countries on atomic energy has prepared suitable grounds to expand all-out economic relations. "Iran has potentials for economic cooperation with the European Union in general and France in particular. With respect to the activities of French companies in Iran in the past, we think the volume of joint economic ventures would stand at around 50 billion dollars within a period of 5-7 years," the minister said. He termed the outcome of his talks with French economic officials as positive and said the two countries signed a memorandum of understanding to promote bilateral trade ties and cooperation. Shariatmadari noted that the MoU stipulates providing facilities to investors in various areas of transportation, communication, advanced technologies, housing and urban development, tourism, agriculture and fishery, medicine and pharmaceuticals, construction of power plants, energy and oil. He further stated the necessity of settling problems that companies and trade organizations of the two countries are currently faced with and France`s support for Iran`s membership in World Trade Organization are among other issues mentioned in the MOU. |