ROME – Over 100 Italian industrialists, bankers, and managers of big firms in a meeting with the caretaker of Iran’s Embassy in Italy on Friday called for expansion of trade ties with Iran.

Introducing Iran’s economic capabilities and potentials, Fereydun Haqbin said that Iran enjoys unique advantages for investment such as access to open seas, special economic and energy zones, and neighboring with 15 countries with a potential 300-million-consumer market.
""Iran and Italy have experienced growing economic cooperation in recent years, so that Italy has been Iran's first EU trade partner in some years,"" he noted, IRNA reported.
“Despite the global economic crisis, Iran-Italy trade shows an increasing trend as the figure for the two-way trade rose to nearly €6.1 billion in 2008 with around €76 million growth compared with 2007,” Haqbin stated.
Haqbin referred to Iran's booming automotive industry which could be paid special attention by Italian industry owners as an advantageous field of cooperation.
Turin Chamber of Commerce Chairman Alessandro Barberis and Italy-Iran Joint Chamber of Commerce President Rosario Elessandro put forward issues regarding ways to promote bilateral trade, particularly in the textile and the petrochemical sectors.
Iran-Italy trade stood at $2.7 billion in 2001 and 3.852 billion euros in 2003. In 2005, Italy was the third largest trading partner of Iran with 7.5% of all exports to Iran. Italy was the top trading partner of Iran in the European Union in early 2006. Commercial exchanges hit 6 billion euros in 2008.