TEHRAN – A cultural attaché from the Iranian Embassy in Moscow met with the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russian Federation chief Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy to discuss the signing by the two sides of a tourism agreement, IRNA quoted an Embassy official on Saturday.

Following the meeting, it was agreed that a tourism MOU be signed in March 2007 when the director of the Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization (CHTO) of Iran travels to Moscow to attend the Intourmarket fair (ITM), one of Russia’s major international tourism expos. The Russian federal tourism agency will soon send its suggestions for a draft of the agreement to the CHTO office in Tehran, the Iranian Embassy noted.

Iran, main consumer of GM crops in Middle East

TEHRAN – An Iranian pathologist has told ISNA that Iran is the largest consumer of genetically modified crops in the Middle East.

However, Dr. Hamid Zamanizadeh from the Islamic Azad University added, no major investment has been made in the biotechnology sector in the past few years. “Transgenic crops that are currently being produced across the world are supposed to be resistant to plant diseases, herbicides, pesticides, weeds, and drought,” he added, “So the production rate will remarkably increase if we promote the technology of growing such crops in the country.”

He pointed out that weeds, pests, and plant diseases account for 30 percent of the loss in the world’s agricultural output every year and that biotechnology could therefore help reduce poverty, especially in the developing and underdeveloped countries.

First Iranian-made cell phone to hit market in Nov.

TEHRAN – An Iranian consortium is to make first type of Iranian-made mobile phones. “We can offer our product to the market this November if everything goes according to plan,” Marzban, the consortium’s managing director said Saturday.

“We will wait until the rate of tariffs for SKD (semi-knocked down) and CKD (completely knocked down) import is announced,” he added, “We are now talking with some foreign cell phone producers, including Nokia, and may have them take part in the project.” He predicted that the cell phone trade in Iran will hit $600 million to $1 billion in the next few years.

New cement plant opens in Firuzkuh

TEHRAN – The Firuzkuh Cement Plant came on stream on Saturday near the city of Firuzkuh, 140 kilometers north of Tehran.

The 380-billion-rial ($41.8 million) project started three years ago in a 70-hectare area. The machinery for the plant, which is said to have an annual capacity of one million tons, is purchased from Germany, Denmark, and Switzerland. The project will create more than 20,000 jobs and will be the main supplier of cement to Tehran and the neighboring provinces of Semnan and Mazandaran.

Golestan exports $15.8m of goods in 4 months

GORGAN, Golestan Prov. – Some 46,626 tons of goods, valued at $15.8 million, was exported from this northeastern Iranian province in the first four months of the current Iranian year (March 21-July 22).

This showed 105% increase in comparison with the corresponding period last year. The exported volume mainly consisted of iron and steel, hematite and barite, and foodstuffs and was destined for Central Asia, Pakistan, and Iraq.