Larijani: Iran ready to export technical, engineering services to Ghana

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in a meeting with Abdul Rashid Hassan Pelpuo, the Ghanaian Minister of State at the Presidency, voiced Tehran's readiness to export technical and engineering services to Ghana in a bid to help development of the African country. "Iran enjoys various capacities and capabilities in different industrial, oil and gas, petrochemical sectors and in area of modern technologies and we are ready to help Ghana in this regard," Larijani said during the meeting. Larijani noted that the Iranian parliament welcomes any proposal or initiative with the purpose of enhancing the political, economic, trade and cultural relations between Iran and Ghana. Pelpuo, for his part, pointed to Iran as an important and influential country in the Middle East and the world, and said, "Iran with its rich culture and civilization enjoys an important status in region and other parts of the world and Ghana is willing to further expand its relations with Iran in different areas." The Ghanaian minister called on the Iranian government and private sectors to help development of his country's economic infrastructures. On Tuesday, Iran and Ghana signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on mutual cooperation in exploration and extraction of gold projects in the African country. The MoU was signed by the heads of the Iranian and Ghanaian chambers of commerce in a meeting in Tehran. The MoU paves the way for Iranian companies and contractors to invest in gold mine exploration and extraction projects in the African country. Head of Iran's Chamber of Commerce Gholam-Hossein Shafeyee said Iran and Ghana signed the MoU subsequent to their previous talks on development projects and export of technical and engineering services. Iranian and Ghanaian officials also inked several other MoUs to further develop ties and cooperation between the two countries in other fields of economy. Ghana is Africa’s second largest gold producer, and hosts more estimated reserves than such prolific gold producing nations as Peru and Papua New Guinea. Tehran has prioritized promotion of its economic and political ties with the African states and the country is now considered as one of the African Union's strategic partners. Tehran's efforts to boost ties and cooperation with Africa have led to its acceptance as an observing member of the African Union (AU), where it has shown an active presence in the AU summit meetings.