TEHRAN – Tehran and Cairo underlined the expansion of bilateral economic, trade, and industrial ties in Egyptian capital on Sunday.

Iranian Industries and Mines Minister Ali-Akbar Mehrabian in a meeting with Egyptian Minister of Foreign Trade and Industry Rachid Mohamed Rachid called his country’s economic and commercial in the Middle East region appropriate.
Iran’s gross domestic product (GDP) grows five percent on average per annum, said the visiting minister, adding 24 million people have jobs in the country.
Referring to Egypt’s great potentials for joint ventures in different fields, the official called for activation of Iran-Egypt bank in various countries particularly in Iran.
Auto, trucks, rails, housing, construction, cement, food, petrochemical, chemical, oil, and gas industries as well as equipment and machinery, power plants, IT, shipbuilding, tiles, medicine, and biotechnology constitute the fields of bilateral cooperation, Mehrabian referred.
Rachid, for his part, welcomed the reinforcement of relations, adding that his country has attracted $11 billion worth of foreign investment in the previous year.
He vowed that the obstacles in the way of bilateral cooperation will be removed.
------------------------------------------------- Wheat imports
Egypt has also held talks with Iran over the possibility of importing Iranian wheat, and hopes to see a new phase in economic relations with it, Reuters quoted the Egyptian Trade Ministry as saying Saturday.
“The coming period will see the start of a new phase of economic relations between Egypt and Iran,” the Egyptian ministry said in a statement.
The ministry made its statement a day after Rachid held talks with Mehrabian in the Egyptian capital.
“The talks dealt with the possibility of importing wheat from Iran, especially given that Iran has become a wheat exporting country,” the statement added.
The ministry said Egypt, one of the world’s biggest wheat importers, had also extended an invitation to Iran’s deputy trade minister to visit Egypt to lay the framework for such wheat deals