The political deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of I.R.Iran, who traveled to the Philippines at the head of a delegation for bilateral negotiations and a meeting of the joint advisory committee, on Tuesday night, 30th of Aban, 1402, with a group of educated and successful Iranians residing in the Philippines at the Cultural Center hall. They talked and exchanged opinions. The purpose of this gathering was to gain insights from successful Iranians and the ways to develop Iran's economic relations in the Philippines and how to provide assistance from the Embassy and Cultural Center of the Islamic Republic in order to improve conditions.

 

At first, Mr. Abdolmajid Abolghasemi, the Cultural Counselor who hosted this meeting, honored the Political Deputy, the Ambassador, the accompanying delegation and the compatriots to the Cultural Center and expressed his pleasure to meet them and, while apologizing for any delay in the meeting, proceeded to introduce the attending Iranians.

Then, the Ambassador of our country, while welcoming the delegation and thanking the Cultural Counselor for making this meeting possible and expressing gratitude to the resident compatriots who participated in this meeting despite their busy schedule, said that the people who are present in this meeting. The ambassador highlighted the achievements and outstanding services of the individuals present in their respective fields of work in the host country, and requested the Political Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of our country to share some remarks.

On the other hand, Mr. Baqeri expressed his gratitude for the presence of the Iranians and the efforts of the resident officials to make such a meeting possible, and pointed out that he was presented in this place to listen to the words of the resident Iranians and to know their situation, and he prefers to listen to the words of his fellow Iranians first. After the brief remarks by the head of the delegation from Iran, Mr. Abolghasemi asked the resident Iranians to briefly state their views.

 

Mrs. Dr. Tazmeen Zadeh, a dentist residing in the Philippines who has been living in this country for many years, gave a brief presentation to the audience and added that in addition to the profession of dentistry, she is also active in tourism and has so far sent Filipino tourists to Iran on a limited scale so they can visit the tourist attractions of our country. She expressed hope that with the further expansion of Iran-Philippines relations, tourism will expand. She also stressed that the problems of sending money to Iran through banks and financial institutions should be resolved.

 

Mr. Dr. Ahmad Rahnama, one of the successful Iranians in tower construction, also added that he finished his studies in veterinary medicine and entered the labor market through importing carpets from Iran and selling them, and then I worked on other economic matters and now I am on the verge of retirement. Mr. Nader Saeedi, another successful Iranian, briefly outlined his past activities, especially in the matter of exporting Iranian tractors to the Philippines and other economic activities, including the exchange of Iranian apples with Philippine bananas, and emphasized the biggest obstacle to the expansion of commercial exchanges between the two countries apart from the obstacles of the economic blockade, Iran's private sector is not active enough in this field. According to him, the private sector of the Philippines has performed well away from government protocols and bureaucracies, and he calls for the formation of a special dedicated organization composed of the private sector of Iran to conduct economic transactions in the Philippines.

Referring to the economic department of the Iranian Embassy in the Philippines, Mr. Saeedi called for more constructive moves in establishing relations between the private sector of the two countries and added that some famous businessmen of the Philippines are willing to dock with their own ships in the ports of Iran and in the current situation to make clearing transactions in order to be freed from the regulations of banks that are subject to the orders of the western powers for the economic blockade of the Islamic Republic. He considered the establishment of Iranian commercial companies by the private sector in the Philippines as one of the things that become an effective factor in the expansion of trade, and he considered the Philippines as a country that has good opportunities for business transactions, and expressed hope that the private sector in Iran would do well.

 

Mr. Mohsen Zanjani, the most successful Iranian businessman in the Philippines, who has one hundred branches distributing tiles and building materials for bathrooms and health centers throughout the Philippine archipelago, confirmed Mr. Saeedi's words and added, "I agree with Mr. Saeedi's words about the wide possibility of expanding commercial and economic activities in the Philippines, I agree very much because I started with a store that distributes tiles and accessories used in the construction of bathrooms, etc., and now I have a hundred branches and a thousand employees throughout the Philippines, but I need to add, the biggest advantage of us Iranians Persistence and initiative and our biggest flaw that leads many to failure is our impatience because in this aspect it took me almost ten years to create such a huge unit while Filipinos are patient and hardworking people.  In the questions and answers that were raised between Mr. Zanjani and Mr. Baqeri, this successful Iranian demanded the expansion of the activities of the private sector producers of Iranian copper in the Philippines, and considering that he added that the import of my tiles is from China and not from Iran. He considered the biggest problem of this import rotation to be the existence of complex bureaucracy in Iran, in contrast to the extensive facilities in China. Mr. Saeedi also added that Italy is one of the countries that exports Iranian tiles to many European countries through intermediaries, while we can conduct such transactions ourselves. The ambassador of the Islamic Republic also confirmed the lack of patience among many Iranians.

 

Another Iranian who introduced himself was Dr. Bahman Samadi, who spoke briefly about the beginning of his cooperation with the embassy at the early days of the revolution and then returning to Iran and teaching in various universities in our country and returning to the Philippines and added, Mastery of English language and simultaneous translation of Farsi into English and vice versa he emphasized he has extensive cooperation with Cultural Center and these cooperation continued until last September when he was bought back and currently, he is in charge and teaching Persian language at UP University in Manila.

Mr. Engineer Homayoun Herandi, who is a successful businessman in carpet affairs, requested the political deputy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make an arrangement so that Iranians who have a Filipino wife can benefit from the facilities of other nationalities who are married in the Philippines in terms of the validity period of their temporary residence visa and added that the officials of the Philippine Immigration Department have emphasized that it is necessary to sign an agreement between the authorities of the two countries so that Iranian nationals can also benefit from such facilities.

 

Dr. Darbandi, a professor at the University of Cebu, was the last successful Iranian present at the meeting who spoke. He said that due to his expertise in microbiology, he is a member of the faculty of two universities in the geographic region of Visayas. He admitted that despite teaching in medical schools, he is not allowed to open a practice due to the absence of a bilateral agreement between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Philippines. He suggested to Mr. Baqeri that due to his administrative responsibility in these two medical schools, if Iran accepts, there is a possibility of sending medical students to take specialized courses in Iran, which is both a currency earner and a factor in further expanding the relations between the two countries and the relevant universities.

After finishing the speeches of the Iranians living in the Philippines, Dr. Baqeri he expressed some thing. He considered this meeting very good and fruitful and added that our trip to the Philippines would not have been complete without this meeting. The Political Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs continued addressing the Shiites by referring to one of the hadiths of Imam Sadiq (a.s.), "Be an ornament and honor for us" and emphasized that each of you, dear Iranians, can be an ornament and honor for Iran.

 

Referring to one of his trips to Mexico in a city near the American soil, he said, I witnessed the presence of successful Iranians there as well, including the head of the Iran-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, which is headed by an Iranian. And here I see that Iranians are successful. In another part of his speech, emphasizing on the issues raised by one of the Iranians present at the meeting, he added that if we want to be successful, we should leave the affairs to the private sector, and the government is the only platform for our private sector to communicate with its counterparts in other countries.

The Political Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs added that today, before coming to this session, in a meeting with his counterpart in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines, I told him that we initially reached an agreement with Germany for the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, but they later withdrew and despite financial reimbursement for the funds we paid, but we also encountered problems with other goods, which, although it is not nuclear like the medicines we need, but they refuse to deliver the medicines on the pretext of currency exchange restrictions. While stressing that the work should be done by competent people, he said to the resident Iranians, those who go abroad from Iran, which I see no problem with, should understand that if they do not think about the country and do not do something for the country, they will fail. Because Iran can never be defeated and it is the individuals who suffer defeat. In the end, Mr. Baqeri added that we are the ones who have to pay our share to the country because our people gave blood, gave lives, gave children, but they are still standing, and I ask Mr. Ambassador to send the report of the economic proposals presented in this meeting to Iran. And I express my gratitude again for attending this meeting.