Iran invites German companies to invest in energy projects

Chitchan made the remarks during a meeting with German Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy and Vice Chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel in Tehran on July 20, Trend reports. 

He further said that Iran and Germany could jointly invest in manufacturing power plants in third countries, Iran’s Fars news agency reported.

Iranian companies are carrying out a series of water and electricity supply projects including power plants in various countries including Oman, Syria, Iraq, Tajikistan and Kenya currently, Chitchian remarked.

The sides can also cooperate in transferring technology, Chitchain said, adding that German companies can become a valuable part of Iran’s market.

The Iranian minister said that Tehran and Berlin could cooperate in increasing Iran’s power generation capacity, which currently stands at around 74,000 MW.

Tehran plans to increase the capacity by 37,000 MW in the next five years, Chitchian added.

Iranian market has big potentials for Germany, he said, adding that the Islamic Republic plans to manufacture combined heat and power (CHP) and distributed generation (DG) power plants.

He expressed hope that Iran-Germany economic ties return to the pre-sanction "golden period” once the sanctions are lifted.

Iranian and German companies and institutions have a good working experience, Chitchian said, calling for accelerating the cooperation.

Currently, German exports to Iran amount to about 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) - less than half what they were ten years ago, when sanctions were imposed. According to the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), that figure could easily multiply to a sum in the double-digit billions once sanctions will be lifted.

Germany was the 14th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iran Customs Administration.

Iran exported $354.17 million of non-oil goods to Germany and imported $2.33 billion of non-oil goods from the country.