Iran to pour investments in Philippines, says Binay

MANILA, Philippines – The country will soon welcome more investments from Iran, said Vice President Jejomar Binay on Sunday, September 2, in his message after his trip to the Middle East country.

In his message, Binay said that Iran Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told him that his country has shifted it business interests from Europe to China. “He said Iran has reduced its investments in Europe, and has put in at least 50 billion euros in China,” Binay said.

Binay and Salehi discussed the possibility of increasing Iran’s import of Philippine bananas and opportunities for increased Iranian investments in the country.

“We agreed to encourage our respective chambers of commerce to discuss the various ways and means of engaging in expanded investments and trade.  Officers and members of the Iranian Chamber of Commerce may be coming to the Philippines soon as a result of this initiative,” Binay said.

Binay added that he also met members of the Filipino-Irano community at the Philippine embassy in Tehran, who expressed investing as well in the country. Some 3,640 Filipinos, most of them women who are married to Iranian nationals, are now staying in Iran.

“A number of these women said they have in fact initiated efforts to bring their own personal investments to the Philippines. But they said they had met with certain administrative problems arising from the government policy which regards their Iranian husbands as “restricted nationals.”  I promised to take this up with the President who, I am sure, would like to address this issue expeditiously for the benefit of all our countrymen married to Iranians,” Binay said.

Binay was in a 3-day visit to Iran to represent the country in the 16th Summit of the heads of state and government of the Non-Aligned Movement. Apart from investments, Binay also discussed contingency plans that has been put in place in case the threat to attack the nuclear plants of Iran happen. – Rappler.com