News / Economy

‘Turkey ready to take part in Iranian auto industry’

Wednesday, 28 January 2015 12:44 PM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 28 January 2015 6:22 PM ]

Turkish Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Işik (file photo)

The Turkish minister of technology has expressed his country’s readiness to cooperate with Iran in its flourishing auto industry.

Turkey’s Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Işik said Wednesday that his country was all set to increase cooperation in the industry with Iran as well as other D-8 member states, Iranian media quoted him as saying.

His comments came during a ministerial meeting of the D-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation, also known as the Developing 8, including Iran, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey, which was held in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Turkey's auto sector has massively grown over the past few years. It is Europe’s 5th and world’s 16th largest automotive producer with a total vehicle production of over 1 million in 2013, with 700,000 of which were exported, according to the British Chamber of Commerce in Turkey.

This is while following the November 2013 removal of sanctions on Iran’s automobile industry over an interim nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 countries, foreign carmakers have been seeking a lion share in the Iranian auto market and its potentially huge capacity to develop further.