Organisers said the B2B meetings are designed to
link foreign delegations with Iranian firms, particularly knowledge-based
enterprises, and to showcase new products. More than 200 foreign trade
delegations and 67 international companies are attending this year’s exhibition.
Members of the Kurdish delegation, including
exporters, importers and business leaders from Kirkuk, Halabja, Erbil and
Sulaymaniyah, expressed satisfaction with the scale and quality of the event.
“Iran is a beloved land for us in terms of
economic and trade cooperation,” said Mohammad Mustafa Sharif, head of a
construction company in Kirkuk. “The scale and quality of this exhibition
exceeded my expectations. Iran’s achievements in the petrochemical sector are
remarkable, and for us as neighbours, this progress is highly valuable.”
Another participant, Jamal Abdullahi, a trader
from Erbil who has sourced Iranian petrochemical products for nearly two
decades, said competitive pricing and quality were key drivers for sustained
demand. “The only challenge we face is exchange rate fluctuations, which
sometimes cause losses during transactions,” he noted.
Despite U.S. sanctions affecting Iran’s trade,
Kurdish businessmen said economic cooperation has continued largely
uninterrupted. “We have no fear of doing business with Iran,” Sharif said. “We
consider Iran like our own land and will always seek to expand trade
relations.”
The IranPlast exhibition, founded in 2002, is one
of the region’s largest events for polymers, plastics and related industries,
serving as a platform for both domestic small and medium-sized enterprises and
international companies to enter wider markets.