Kazakhstan among priority countries for tourism development - Iranian official

The Kazakh diplomat had meetings with Foreign Minister of this country, Vice President for Tourism Development, leadership of the ministry of industries, mines and trade as well as with the heads of the leading Iranian companies specializing in alternative and renewable energy sources.

At the meeting with IRI Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif the parties discussed the state and prospects of development of both countries cooperation, the issues of bilateral political interaction and development of trade-economic, scientific-research, cultural-humanitarian partnership between Kazakhstan and Iran. M. Zarif noted that the talks on Iran's nuclear program held in Almaty in 2013 laid the foundation for further promotion of the negotiating process and the way of Iran's withdraw from the sanctions regime.

Tourism development issues, visa regime simplification, implementation of tourist group visas and oncoming opening of direct flights between Astana and Tehran were discussed at a meeting with Deputy Vice President of Iran Morteza Rahmani. The parties focused also on implementation of joint projects on tourist group packages and popularization of Kazakhstan's tourism potential in Iran. M. Rahmani told that the Government of Iran had included Kazakhstan in the list of priority countries for developing cooperation in tourism.

At the meeting with deputy ministers of industries, mines and trade Hussein Esfahbod

and Valiollah Afkhami Rad , the parties discussed bilateral trade-economic relations, the prospects of cooperation in "green" energy and interaction between governmental agencies and companies in development of economic ties. The parties highlighted that the launch of Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railroad broadens opportunities for the development and expansion of the bilateral and regional trade. Hussein Esfahbod appointed as IRI's section Commissioner at the EXPO-2017 assured that Iran would be worthily represented at the international specialized exhibition in Astana. According to the 6 th national development plan, Iran intends to reach 5GW electric power volume with the development of renewable energy sources. The Iranian Government has agreed to allocate 500 mln euro for this sector of economy from the National Development Fund.

In the course of his visit to Iran, Zhoshybayev and Esfahbod signed the Agreement on participation of Iran in the EXPO-2017. The memorandums of cooperation in tourism were signed also between Astana EXPO-2017 National Company and Iran's Teeba and HolidayCo tour operators.

Following the visit, the Embassy of Kazakhstan in Iran organized a presentation of EXPO-2017 which was attended by the Kazakh students studying in Iran. A press conference for major Iranian mass media was held too.