Awakening the Iranian market with exhibitions

Iran， a country associated with the One Thousand One Nights tales and shrew Persian merchants， has long been a gateway to the Middle East and North Africa regional market along the ancient Silk Road. As one of the world’s top 15 countries in mineral resources， Iran has the world’s second largest natural gas reserve. Besides， with a population of 80 million people， 64% under 35 years old， Iran has a huge domestic consumption market.

In January this year， since the economic ban on Iran was lifted， Iran has attracted world business organizations with its huge potential market demands. However， before this， international companies have been tapping the local market through exhibitions.

About 10 exhibition centers in Iran are the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry （UFI） members and have average exhibition space of 100，000 to 200，000 square meters. Among them， Tehran International Exhibition Center is the country’s biggest venue and possesses 1.24 million exhibition square meters and many multi-functional meeting rooms.

Currently， Iranian trade fairs covers the area of building materials， international travel， food， electronics， packing machine， heating and ventilation， international trade， water treatment and more. Huge local market has attracted the attention of exhibition giants in Germany and China. In May this year， as the first foreign exhibition brand to Iran， AMB Iran 2016 was jointly held by VDMA，VDW， and Messe Stuttgart from Germany.The show received 111 exhibitors and 8，000 trade visitors， intentional signing deals reached 10 million US dollars. In September， China Trade Week Iran 2016 was held in Tehran. Governmental and business leaders from both sides attended the opening ceremony. The fair welcomed about 240 exhibitors and 5，000 trade visitors. Through 200 B2B sessions， intent deal reached 30 million US dollars.

In the beginning this year， Chinese President Xi Jinping paid the first Chinese national leader’s visit to Iran in the past ten years. Both countries signed a series of cooperation documents covering the fields of energy， manufacturing capacity， finance， investment， telecommunication， culture， law， science， press， customs， climate changes and human resources.

In the past five years， China has been Iran’s largest trade partner country and Iran’s largest export market. It is believed that in the future， bilateral trade volumes will hit new heights.