Reporting "Asre Khodro", Mohammad Reza Najafi-Manesh said Iran has set several conditions for foreign automakers which need to be strictly followed for cooperation of any kind; accordingly, for manufacturing cars inside the country, the share of domestic production needs to be a minimum of 40 per cent to reach 80 per cent in an envisaged time span.

“The basis of joint collaboration between Iranian and foreign automakers needs to be production of cars inside the country through the real sense of the word rather than mere imports,” he emphasized.

He further asserted that a at least 30 per cent of the produced items need to be deployed to global markets; “investment in technology transfer has been included as yet another condition in foreign car deals by the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mines, and Trade.”

“Only countries and companies who comply with these conditions will be warmly received by Iran,” he continued.

Najafi-Manesh refuted any ongoing negotiations with American automakers maintaining “we have set general prerequisites for Asian countries which need to be abided by before the launch of cooperation.”

Touching upon the deal with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën during the recent visit of President Rouhani to Paris, the official noted “Peugeot has accepted all the stipulations as well as that the company will produce auto parts domestically in addition to exports of the products; moreover, it has been agreed that the production would plunge if the export is less than the anticipated amount.”

“Peugeot will also benefit from Iranian market sharing interests; all benefits are perceived to be common; the contract has been sealed in such a way that both France’s Peugeot and Iran Khodro Industrial Group (IKCO) will enjoy the benefits of implementing the joint project,” he underlined.

The member of Iran’s Car Manufacturing Policymaking Council concluded that “Peugeot will make amends for all the losses of earlier deals reimbursing Iran in full.”

 Source: Mehr News