China keen to invest in Iran's Fars province

Senior officials from Chinese and Iranian provinces discussed ways to promote all-out economic cooperation, specially in the mining and tourism sectors. Speaking at a meeting with members of Iranian Fars Province's Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture on Saturday, Deputy Secretary-General of Guangdong Provincial Government Liu Xiaojie said Fars is a big province, rich in energy and mines as well as agriculture. He noted that regarding abundant tourist resorts in Fars, the province is expected to turn into a tourist hub in the future. The Chinese official further underlined Fars and Guangdong provinces' capacities to develop economic cooperation, saying that the two sides can have good economic relations in the future. He said that Guangdong province exported more than $20mln worth goods to Iran in 2013. Trade between Iran and China in the past year was estimated at $45bln. Iran is currently China's third largest supplier of crude, providing Beijing with roughly 12 percent of its total annual oil consumption. According to the figures released by China's General Administration of Customs in January, China's crude oil imports from Iran reached 2.5mln tons (mt) in December 2012, up 43 percent from November. The official data showed that China's daily crude imports from Iran in December 2012 also rose 3.6 percent compared to December 2011. It marks China's biggest crude import from Iran since it won a renewal of exemption from the United States' oil embargo against Iran.