Reports have emerged in the media that a delegation of American businessmen has traveled to Iran to explore the avenues for investments after the sanctions against the country are removed.
The Financial Times in a report said a delegation of 22 US entrepreneurs, investors and consultants were in Tehran on Thursday and were briefed about the post-sanctions Iran business potentials.
Senior US business delegations — from aviation companies to oil groups and food conglomerates — are rumored to have been discreetly traveling to Iran or holding meetings with Iranian businessmen in regional or European countries over the past year in preparation for the day that business with one of the world’s most untapped markets is authorized, the report said.
But the Thursday Tehran visit by the 22 US businesspeople was the first to travel openly to Iran, it added.
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries are working on a final agreement over the Iranian nuclear energy program that has a deadline of June 30. A key point of the agreement will be the removal of a series of economic sanctions on Iran.
Several delegations from Europe and Asia have so far visited the country to study the potentials for investing in the country’s market and more are expected in capital Tehran in the near future.
As for the US delegation, the spirits over Iran business potentials as illustrated by the Financial Times appear to have been high.
“We are going to speak about what we saw to help [Barack] Obama [strike a nuclear deal],” said Ned Lamont, a member of the delegation, who represented Lamont Digital Systems.
“I am an entrepreneur in the New York Stock Exchange . . . but not planning to do business in Iran,” said Linda Mason, another delegation member who heads Bright Horizons, a leading provider of worksite childcare operating in 45 US states and Europe.
“It is more to be a communicator, as American business people are always looking for new markets and are open for risks,” she was quoted as saying by the Financial Times.
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