Iran's giant auto-maker keen to find new foreign partners

Iran's largest car manufacturer, Iran-Khodro Company (IKCO), has a plan to expand cooperation with new foreign auto-makers, the company's CEO said. "Existence of the old foreign partners will not cause that we do not consider new partners. What is a priority for us is that we need a reliable partner, a partner that cooperates with us in hard conditions besides good days," Hashem Yekeh Zareh said. He further added that Iran aims cooperation with other corporations to boost production and get access to know-how not just assemble car parts. "Our glance to foreign corporations has not changed and what has happened is that we are thinking other partners, because the partners are not only Peugeot and Renault," the Iranian official pointed out. Early in November, French Senator Jean-Yves Leconte and Yekeh Zareh expressed interest in the resumption of relations in the auto industry. During the meeting in Tehran, Yekeh Zareh referred to the key role of auto industry in long mutual relation and cooperation between Iran and France and said that long presence of Peugeot and Renault in Iran confirms this idea. He expressed hope that the suspension of cooperation between Iran and France auto industry would be resolved soon and ties would be developed. According to Yekeh Zareh, Iranian market is an attractive market for global automakers and there are a lot of companies eager to be active in this market. He said that new conditions and opportunities in this market should be considered closely. Referring to the IKCO's position as the biggest car manufacturer in the Middle-East, the CEO said the company is eager to have Peugeot and Renault as its main partners. He expressed hope to see these two French companies active in the IKCO's car production process by the next year. During the visit, Leconte, for his part, said that there are many countries that want to use this opportunity to develop their cooperation in auto industry with Iran. "We all have suffered from sanctions. We hope we would be able to use the existing capacities to boost mutual cooperation," he added. The senator finally added that he would inform French government and organizations about the results of his meeting with the IKCO's CEO.