Iranian Rial

screwball · September 25, 2017

Masoud Khansari, Head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (TCCIMA), while addressing a joint meeting with private sector activist and representatives of PwC multinational professional services network, said “following implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the country's political situation has improved and foreign investors are interested in participating in the Iranian economy, but unfortunately, the emerged opportunity has not been seized as much as expected.”

The official said, in the post-sanction era, local banks, as a result of pressures that they sustained during sanction years, failed to communicate well with foreign counterparts; “moreover, certain domestic issues remained unresolved in the meantime as Iranian banks failed to adapt themselves to international regulations during the last ten years; for the same reason, firms in the country also failed to establish strong links with foreign parties.”

“Over the past two years, Tehran Chamber has established an office to attract foreign investment and appropriate measures have been taken in this regard,” stated Khansari adding “TCCIMA has sought to identify and eliminate bottlenecks in rules and regulations which hinder presence of foreigners as well as to single put potentials for attracting foreigners.

He went on to add that another restriction pertained to Iran’s global economy rankings; “in the same vein, TCCIMA calls on PwC to offer proposals for promotion of the country’s in Index of Economic Freedom.”

Central Bank of Iran (CBI) is also after making reforms, maintained TCCIMA Head Khansari asserting “the first step was to interests rates of banking deposits.”

He said companies in the country should be able to establish a good relationship with foreigners in a bid to attract foreign investors; “we need to comply with international standards hence the joint meeting with PwC who can help with implementation of reform in the country’s economic structure.”

screwball · September 25, 2017

The International Monetary Fund is optimistic that Iran can unify its dual foreign exchange rates in 2017-18 despite recent challenges facing the country, such as currency market volatility.

In an interview with Financial Tribune, Catriona Purfield, a senior economist at IMF, said since the Iranian government has already done a lot of preparations to adopt a single exchange rate regime, the country is capable of making an early move in this regard.

"Half of imports has been put on the market rate and most of the goods are now at the flexible rate. Interbank FX market has been reestablished. Therefore all the elements are there, so an early move is possible," she said.

Purfield , who led a recent Article IV mission to Iran– an annual health check on the Iranian economy as she puts it, added that in its earlier report, IMF had urged Iran to unify the exchange rates and have "a managed float" to have an early move benefit.

After completing a two-week Article IV consultation with Iran, IMF released its concluding statement on Feb. 27 in which it commended Iran for its "impressive recovery" from recession after the lifting of sanctions in 2016.

In preparing its report, the Article IV team had policy discussions with the Central Bank of Iran, ministries and agencies, private sector, Chamber of Commerce, NGOs, entrepreneurs, Cooperatives Ministry and social organizations.

"We witnessed a fundamental difference in this year's Iran performance compared to last year ... We're seeing growth in the range of 6.5-6.6%, which is the forecast figure for this year … a huge turnaround from last year when the economy actually contracted," Purfield said.

According to the economist, if Iran had unified its exchange rates at the time of the oil price crash, it would have had an extra tool to respond to that shock.

"IMF has been strong in its language advocating for an early move to unify the rates and doing it within a year because the dual exchange rates vary by more than 2%," Purfield said.

Asked why IMF did not advise a specific date for the unification, she noted that "we did not advise on an exact timing for unification because at the end, the government has to make sure the FX market is stable and it has good access to international reserves to prevent unexpected spikes in the exchange rate".

Article IV also had discussions with Iranian authorities to have better regulations to control the FX market to have more transparency by moving transactions to the banking sector, having real-time monitoring of foreign exchange within the market and setting up the infrastructure to monitor the market.

"They should come up with regular publication of FX reserves data and that information should be available and we had discussions to have a more transparent framework," she said.

Purfield cautioned that reforming the monetary policy framework and moving away from fixing an exchange rate were contingent upon the market exchange rate being stable and having a good monetary policy and a good grip on inflation.

Growth and Other Aspects

However impressive Iran's economic growth in 2016-17, it cannot be denied that thanks to a surge in oil exports, Iran clawed back its share from the market or as Purfield puts it as an "oil story".

"Oil data show a 52% jump in value-added to the economy (oil exports nearly doubled this year) and that growth is not seen in the rest of the economy," she said.

"The non-oil sector has been quite weak and we have pointed that in the report and we have been more modest in the growth uptick for 2016/17 than the government."

Purfield noted that IMF is keen that there should be reforms to support growth and to be able to allow the non-oil economy to expand.

The non-oil sector only registered a 0.9% growth in the first half of 2016-17, which was attributed by IMF to difficulties in accessing finance and domestic financial sector, and structural weaknesses.

"We have been more conservative in our medium-term forecast (4.4%) and the figure for next year's headline growth (3.3%), which will be lower or on the downtrend unless oil prices increase or there is expansion in that sector," she said.

"Otherwise, there's no way that oil can grow again by 52% and that's why we have emphasized growth in the non-oil sector."

Banking Woes

A good part of IMF advice this year focuses on the condition of Iranian banks and the serous struggles they are facing.

As the economist puts it, they urged problem solving in the banking system to safeguard the achievements of financial stability and low inflation.

"Interest rates are now in the 20% range and without inflation that implies a real rate of nearly 10% that is strangling the private sector and the recovery," she said.

Purfield recommends that now that the economy is beginning to recover and external relations are improving, it is time to address the challenges in the banking sector.

"One thing we advised is to handpick distressed banks and put them on enhanced supervisory administration–the very banks which are competing for deposits by offering you some very nice interest rate and that makes interest rates rising fast because other banks try to compete with them," she said.

"Another key advice is to conduct an Asset Quality Review: an independent auditor going into each bank and doing a forensic on each of the bank's balance sheets. So you can get an exact sense of how the problem of non-performing assets is and where the problem is coming from."

The economist stressed that that's when one can determine which of the banks can be saved and which of the banks may not be viable so they can be resolved: merged or closed.

She is also comforted by the fact that the Iranian government has begun to take some of the steps for this by implementing International Financial Reporting Standards, which is the first step for being more transparent.

The two banking laws (the Banking Reform Bill and the Central Bank Bill) will be very helpful, as they will strengthen the tools to deal with the banks and also enhance supervision over them.

The government is seeking IMF technical advice regarding these issues so they can be in line with international standards and the bills will ensure that the banking system gets back into shape again.

As for addressing the external threats that Iran is facing, the economist believes the country will have to begin domestic reforms like reducing dependence on oil, strengthening the financial sector, expanding the role of private sector and reducing the government's role in the economy.

"Other measures include creating buffers and savings so you have something to draw from when there is a shock," she said.

Precedent shows, Purefield says, that on the whole Iran has been relatively good at taking IMF advice.

Will Iran follow embrace these recommendations too? Here's hoping.

screwball · September 25, 2017

The above from August 2017

screwball · September 25, 2017

97837 views...lol

screwball · September 25, 2017

Iranian Foreign Ministry pursuing economic diplomacy

Tehran, Sep 25, IRNA – Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Monday that Iran is supporting foreign investment which is among its priorities.

Bahram Qasemi added that the foreign ministry has plans to attract foreign investment that can be done by Iranians residing out of Iran or foreign investors and hoped the attempts will be useful.

9417**2050

Follow us on Twitter @IrnaEnglish

screwball · September 26, 2017

The administration of President Hassan Rouhani is mulling new measures to make home loans more appealing to first-time homebuyers, as it seeks to lift the key housing sector out of the doldrums after enduring a period of negligence over the past four years.

“Seeking to boost the purchasing power of home loan applicants, especially in distressed urban areas, we are trying to reduce the loans’ waiting period to four or five months and increase the repayment period to 20 years while cutting their interest rates by 1-2%,” the managing director of Planning and Economy Office at the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development said.

Ali Chegini added that in the past two years, about 260,000 people have applied for home loans by opening Housing Saving Accounts and some 20,000 applicants have so far received their loans, MRUD’s official website reported.

Chegini noted that applicants for Housing Saving Account loans have significantly increased in recent months.

Currently, the waiting period for these home loans is at least one year while the repayment period has been set at 12 years.

The Housing Savings Account, launched in June 2015 for the first time, is a government scheme spearheaded by Bank Maskan–the agent bank of the housing sector–that requires applicants, mainly first-time homebuyers, to make a deposit and wait for a year to receive facilities.

While hailed by pundits as an effective first-step, critics point to the fact that the loans barely cover one-third of an average apartment's cost and that the installments are simply unaffordable for a considerable section of the youth population.

Affirming talks of a stimulus package for the housing sector, Hamed Mazaherian, the deputy for housing with the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development, also announced that the ministry is negotiating with the administration to sweeten the Housing Savings Account mortgages.

He noted that the ministry has proposed a list of suggestions to a special committee in government where the resources and expenses are being assessed.

“We are very optimistic that the government will approve and implement our suggestions,” he added.

Mazaherian explained that the housing sector is gradually entering its booming phase but “if we make haste to achieve a boom in the market, we might face a notable leap in prices” so it is the ministry’s policy to improve the housing market gradually.

Stimulating the key housing sector has been among President Rouhani's promises during his reelection campaign that led to a landslide victory in August. He had previously ordered the interest on home loans to be reduced to single digits, making them the cheapest credits one can get in the Iranian banking system, bar interest-free loans.

Summerly Gain

According to Chegini, during the month ending August 22, Tehran has registered 18,000 home sales that indicate a growth of 15% compared with the same month of the previous year.

According to the managing director of the Planning and Economy Office, the number of housing deals might have declined a bit in the following month but it is predicted that on a year-on-year comparison, the number of deals still stands higher than last year, which can herald prosperity for the housing sector.

According to the Central Bank of Iran's figures, the number of home sales during the aforementioned month has been unprecedented since May 2014. This is while the average number of home sales in Tehran in the past three years had not exceeded 13,000 per month.

“Predictive indicators of housing sector point to a positive trend in the market and if the Central Bank of Iran manages to control banks’ interest rates that had negative effects on various economic sectors of the country, housing sector can also keep moving toward full recovery,” Chegini said.

According to CBI's latest directive, banks and credit institutions were obligated to refrain from paying high interests after Sept. 2 and cap their interests on one-year deposits at the previously set 15% while paying a maximum interest of 10% to short-term deposits.

Chegini noted that the number of building permits issued has registered an upward trend since the final months of the previous Iranian year (ended March 20, 2017) after years of consecutive decline.

“During the early months of the new fiscal year, the number of construction permits issued in Tehran and other urban areas of the country has increased by 5-6%,” he added.

The official noted that according to the Statistical Center of Iran’s report, the housing sector’s value added during the first quarter of the current year marked a year-on-year growth of 7%, which also point to the sector’s recovery.

screwball · September 26, 2017

The shortcomings of Iran’s Health Reform Plan were not limited to international sanctions and lower crude prices. As it turned out, domestic policymaking also played a big role.

In 2014, HRP, which embodied a series of reforms, was launched under President Hassan Rouhani in the health system of Iran.

HRP came as a groundbreaking move to reshape Iran’s health sector after it had been grounded under harsh international sanctions during the previous administration around 2010.

At that time, drugs became unprecedentedly scarce and a black market raged, reads an article published by Trend News Agency. Excerpts follow:

HRP was mainly based on the Fifth Five-Year Development Plan (2011-2016). It included different interventions to increase population coverage of basic health insurance, increase quality of care in the government-affiliated hospitals, reduce out-of-pocket payments for inpatient services, increase quality of primary healthcare, launch updated relative value units of clinical services and update tariffs to more realistic values.

General Public Satisfaction

The reforms resulted in extensive social reaction and different professional feedback.

The official monitoring program shows general public satisfaction. However, there are some concerns about the program’s sustainability and equity of financing. Securing financial sources and fairness of the financial contribution to the new program were the main concerns of policymakers. Some members of the parliament opposed the plan from the outset.

Whatever good intentions legitimized HRP, there are many people in the private sector who are bearing the brunt of its deficiencies.

One of Iran’s oldest drug bottle manufacturers is facing a huge crisis and is struggling to prevent bankruptcy, which the management associates with HRP.

The company has already exhausted all the banking facilities that it could acquire directly or through its subsidiary factories, and is now changing its molds to produce bottles for uses other than drug packaging.

An official with the company, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Trend that the crisis follows a liquidity crisis in Iran’s healthcare sector.

“Drug manufacturers can no longer produce, because they have been facing a liquidity crisis after the government failed to pay its outstanding debts to hospitals and pharmaceutical companies,” the source said.

Held Back by Decline in Oil Revenues

HRP was implemented right at a time when international sanctions against Iran were at their peak, hard pressing the government whose main source of income was oil export.

Later, when sanctions were lifted following Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, a huge plunge in oil prices followed, leaving the Iranian government with little improvement of oil revenues.

Just before HRP was introduced, the government had allocated 160,000 rials (about $4.8) to each patient as health subsidy to be given via the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare’s Social Security Organization to insurance companies. However, HRP authorized 320,000 rials (about $9.7) for each insured person. Shortage of resources left the government with a huge debt to the health sector.

“Instead of liquidating the debts, the government proposed that it will provide pharmaceutical companies with low-interest loans, which will drive them deeper into liquidity crisis in the long run,” the source in the packaging company said.

“Now, as they have cut down on production, the drug manufacturers would naturally no longer place orders for packaging.”

This drug bottle factory now faces at least 1.8 billion rials (about $54,000) worth of surplus product that it is not optimistic to be able to sell within the current fiscal year (ending March 20, 2018), and therefore sees no need to produce drug bottles anymore, the source observed.

“As a result, it is changing its molds from drug bottles to food bottles.”

Policymaking Flaws

In July 2016, Minister of Cooperatives, Labor and Social Welfare Ali Rabiei admitted the flaws, saying the way the plan was implemented resulted in a huge liquidity crisis.

“First I thought there were 5 million people in Iran who did not have insurance coverage and were to be covered under HRP. But later, as the country’s statistics infrastructure improved, the number was found to be 11 million. Also, the per capita health insurance allocation had improved from 160,000 to 320,000 rials. As a result, 3.52 trillion rials of fiscal load appeared out of the blue, whereas we had planned for 1.1 trillion. That is why we hit a liquidity crisis,” he said.

The minister had elsewhere said that about 80% of the fiscal load of HRP lay on the shoulders of insurers.

A few days after Rabiei’s remarks, Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi admitted the fact and said insurance companies did not possess sufficient resources to pay up, noting that in the preceding fiscal year, insurance companies faced an 8-trillion-rial deficit.

Also, Farzad Firouzi, a South Khorasan Welfare official, said in January 2016 that HRP had increased the fiscal burden on insurers by four or five times.

Head of Food and Drug Organization Rasoul Dinarvand last December said if debts owed to drug manufacturers were not paid, a “crisis” would sweep the country’s drug market.

In July, there were reports that some private hospitals had quit accepting patients under HRP, as they were not being paid by insurance companies.

In June, Deputy Chairman of Majlis Health Commission Homayoun Yousefi also rang the alarm bells over debts hospitals owed to drug manufacturers.

“The Ministry of Health faces a huge amount of debt,” he said. This September, Chairman of the Pharmaceutical Association of Iran Mohammad Baqer Zia said the pharmaceutical industry in Iran had been crippled because companies were not receiving their dues from insurers.

screwball · September 26, 2017

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

Iran Private Sector Seeks Share of Finance

Head of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture Gholamhossein Shafei will soon attend the next meeting of the Money and Credit Council–a financial decision-making body–to negotiate a share for the private sector from the recent stream of foreign finance flowing into the country, ICCIMA’s deputy head announced. “Our concern is that a significant part of these funds would be used in government projects that are not economically viable,” Pedram Soltani also told IBENA. “If that happens, the repayment of foreign loans in the future would be imposed on the budget and would only serve to increase the national debt,” he added.

screwball · September 26, 2017

They know what's coming

Freedomwish · September 26, 2017

1 hour ago, screwball said:

They know what's coming

screwball · September 27, 2017

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

CBI Intensifies Oversight

Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif announced that in the first term of President Hassan Rouhani’s presidency, about 30 cases of violations by banks were sent to CBI’s Disciplinary Committee. Seif noted that before 2013, an insignificant number of banking violations were referred to the disciplinary committee, which shows CBI is putting extra effort to identify and tackle banking violations. CBI’s governor made the remarks in a meeting convened by the Office for Combating Economic Corruption on Monday. Seif thanked the anti-corruption body’s efforts and support, which enabled CBI to curb the activities of unauthorized banks and credit institutions.

screwball · September 27, 2017

European diplomats warned the administration of US President Donald Trump on Monday that Europe is prepared to block US efforts to reimpose international sanctions against Iran, as long as Tehran continues to comply with its obligations under the nuclear deal.

If the US pulls out of the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and reapplies sanctions that target not only Iran, but other countries who do business with Iran, the European Union could take advantage of a statute dating back to the mid-1990s that would protect European companies from being penalized under the sanctions, EU Ambassador to the United States David O’Sullivan was quoted as saying on Monday in a report by The Huffington Post.

Speaking at the Atlantic Center alongside French, British and German ambassadors, Sullivan said, “We have the blocking statute ... which does offer legal protection to European companies which are threatened by the extraterritorial nature of US sanctions in certain circumstances.

“I have no doubt that if this scenario materializes, which it’s not clear it will, the European Union will act to protect the legitimate interests of our companies with all the means at our disposal.”

EU Interests, Stakes in Iran

Trade between Europe and Iran has seen a significant rise after the implementation of JCPOA in January 2016.

Latest data released by Luxembourg-based Directorate General of the European Commission, Eurostat, show Iran’s trade with the European Union topped €9.9 billion in the first half of 2017, registering a 95% rise compared with last year’s corresponding period.

Iran’s exports to EU’s 28 nations exceeded $5 billion, indicating a 227% rise year-on-year. Petroleum, petroleum products and related materials accounted for a majority of Iran’s exports to the EU during the period, with a total value of €4.4 billion.

Italy was the biggest importer as it bought €1.54 billion worth of Iranian goods during the period. France, Greece and Spain followed with €1.26 billion, €638.5 million and €609.4 million worth of imports respectively.

Iran imported €4.94 billion worth of commodities from the European Union during the same period, recording a %38.5 YOY rise. The imports mainly included manufactured goods and chemicals.

Germany topped the list of exporters to Iran, shipping €1.39 billion worth of goods to the Islamic Republic. Italy came second with €849.6 million and France followed with €763.7 million.

According to the European Commission, the EU exported over €8.2 billion worth of goods to Iran in 2016, up 27.8% YOY and imported about €5.5 billion worth of goods from Iran, up 344.8% YOY.

Popular Destination

Iran has become a popular destination for EU businesses, since the nuclear deal and the ensuing lifting of sanctions. A deal was signed between the UK and Iran earlier this month based on which British renewable energy investor Quercus will invest over €500 million ($600 million) in a solar power project in Iran.

French automaker Renault signed a contract in August to set up a €660 million joint venture with Iranian firms for increasing car production inside the country by 75%.

Earlier in July, French energy giant Total, together with Chinese state-owned China National Petroleum Corp, signed a $5 billion deal with Tehran to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars, the world’s largest gas field.

Deals with European companies include Swiss MECI Group International’s agreement to build a €750-million wind farm in northern Iran, PSA Peugeot Citroen’s joint venture contract with long-time partner Iran Khodro to invest €400 million to upgrade the Iranian carmaker’s auto plant as well as another agreement with local manufacturer SAIPA to invest €300 million in five years in manufacturing and R&D, Airbus’s contract with Iran to sell 100 jetliners worth about $19 billion at list prices (three of which have been delivered so far) and French-Italian planemaker ATR’s contract with flag carrier Iran Air worth $536 million for purchase of 20 ATR turboprop aircraft (four of which have been delivered so far and two more are expected to land within a week’s time).

French construction firm Alstom’s agreement to manufacture 1,000 subway wagons in Iran and Siemens AG’s contract worth at least €1.5 billion to build rail coaches and upgrade tracks in Iran are among the major deals Europeans have secured with the Islamic Republic after the nuclear deal.

In what were the first finance deals clinched with European banks after JCOPA’s implementation, Iran signed two agreements worth a total of €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) with Austria’s Oberbank and Denmark’s Danske Bank on Thursday.

The first deal, worth €1 billion ($1.2 billion), was signed by 14 Iranian banks and the seventh-biggest bank of Austria that boasts a balance sheet of roughly €20 billion ($24 billion). And the second deal, worth €500 million ($600 million), was signed between 10 banks and the longstanding Nordic lender Danske Bank.

US Sanctions Alone Ineffective

Because Washington has virtually no trade relations with Tehran, US sanctions against Iran are not an effective nuclear deterrent unless other countries join the effort.

In the years leading up to the 2015 nuclear deal, European countries, as well as China and Russia, cooperated with US-led efforts to choke off Iran’s economy in hopes of persuading Iran to negotiate restrictions on its nuclear program. But now that Iran has scaled back its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief, the countries that helped negotiate JCPOA see no reason to cut off trade with Tehran again.

According to the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, Iran’s trade with the US stood at about $387 million during the Iranian fiscal year that ended on March 20, 2017. US exports accounted for about $285 million of the sum.

IRICA’s latest statistics on bilateral trade show Iran exported $31.32 million worth of commodities to the US during the five months to August 22 and imported $72 million in return.

According to independent trade group US-Iran Chamber of Commerce, it is estimated that sanctions on Iran cost the United States $203-271.8 billion in export revenues.

The warning from the EU ambassador came ahead of an Oct. 15 deadline, when Trump has to inform to Congress whether Iran is complying with the nuclear deal. That deadline is the result of legislation passed by Congress in 2015 that requires the president to make several certifications to lawmakers every 90 days.

Those certifications go beyond the technical requirements set forth in JCPOA. One certification, for example, requires the president to confirm that providing sanctions relief to Iran is “vital to the national security interests” of the US.

Defying IAEA

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the organization tasked with monitoring the use of nuclear technology, confirmed last month for the eighth time that Iran was complying with JCPOA. But the subjective nature of the reporting requirements in the law passed by Congress means that Trump could opt to decertify Iranian compliance, even as the IAEA says Tehran is fulfilling its obligations.

If Trump does not certify Iranian compliance, Congress has 60 days to decide whether to fast-track legislation to reimpose nuclear sanctions, a move that Iran would likely claim is a violation of the agreement.

European countries face an awkward situation if the US reimposes sanctions against Iran without definitive evidence that Iran has breached the nuclear deal. They will have to choose between breaking publicly with a key ally or losing credibility by failing to honor a diplomatic agreement.

Trump said last week that he had decided what he will do on Oct. 15, but he’s keeping his decision a secret even to US allies who are party to the agreement.

Amid this uncertainty, European diplomats have lobbied the Trump administration and lawmakers to continue providing sanctions relief in exchange for Iran abiding by strict caps on its nuclear program and allowing intrusive IAEA inspections.

European diplomats were cautious on Monday not to criticize Trump, but it was clear they were frustrated by his insistence that it would be easy to reach a new agreement more favorable to the West.

“This was a multilateral agreement with difficult partners,” French Ambassador to the US Gerard Araud said, referring to Iran, China and Russia, whose national interests are often at odds with US and European interests.

“Anybody who says we [could] get the perfect deal with those kinds of partners is just dreaming.”

screwball · September 27, 2017

epresentatives of Alborz Export Promotion Company met with a delegation from Russia’s Elbin Bank to discuss ways of expanding banking and trade ties.

“Elbin Bank wishes to expand relations with the Iranian banking system and has placed transfer of interbank remittances and development of trade ties between Iran and Russia on its agenda,” the chief executive of the bank was quoted as saying by the news portal of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.

Elbin Bank was founded in 1993 and has branches in Moscow and Vladikavakaz. The bank had in the past interacted with Iranian banks.

In mid-August, it signed two agreements with an Iranian delegation from the northwestern province of Ardabil in Moscow. The agreements envision the development of a spa town between Ardabil and Sareyn–Iran’s famous spa hub–and the sale of Ardabil’s handicrafts in Russia.

At the meeting with the company’s representatives, the CEO of Russian lender said his bank is even ready to resolve problems regarding transfer of small volumes of foreign currency owned by Iranian traders because they are sometimes forced to bear higher costs to move their funds.

He referred to Iranian goods being offered in Moscow by the Alborz Export Promotion Company as a positive step for introducing the variety of Iranian products to familiarize Russian businessmen.

In early September, it was announced that by late October, the company will open a permanent exhibition in Moscow based on an agreement reached by an Iranian-Russian consortium headed by Russia’s Elbin Bank and a charity foundation affiliated to State Welfare Organization of Iran.

Based on the agreement, food, agricultural and industrial products of Alborz as well as other Iranian provinces will be showcased in an area of 300 square meters in the Russian capital.

According to Elbin Bank’s chief executive, he held talks with the Alborz company regarding power plant cooperation as well as for facilitating Russian investments in the petrochemicalsector.

Masoud Qasemi, the head of Alborz Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, said the chamber is ready to provide space for the Russian bank to open a representative bureau.

“Unlike previous year, we are not strictly looking to purchase goods required by the province and we want to focus on export of goods required by Russia,” he added.

screwball · September 28, 2017

Ahead of a trip by a private sector delegation to Switzerland, the head of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture met with the newly-appointed ambassador of the Central European nation to Iran to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral ties, mainly by resolving banking issues inside and outside Iran.

TCCIM chief, Masoud Khansari, said that in addition to furthering its own diplomatic affairs with Iran, the Swiss Embassy is tasked with preserving other nations' interests and therefore plays a significant role in this area.

"Switzerland has always acted as a facilitator in international affairs and played a significant role with regard to JCPOA [Iran's nuclear deal]," he was also quoted as saying by the official news portal of the chamber.

In the absence of Iran-US diplomatic and consular relations, the Swiss government has acted as a protector of US interests in Iran since May 1980 through its embassy in Tehran.

As noted by Khansari, a commercial delegation with TCCIM representing more than 30 private sector businesses will soon travel to Geneva for a three-day visit to confer with their Swiss counterparts.

The official will deliver a keynote speech at a conference that is to be held in Zurich with the aim of attracting foreign finance for Iran.

"I sincerely hope that these meetings and gatherings will serve as a notable step in facilitating bilateral ties and developing trade deals between the private sectors of both countries," he said.

The private sector leader then turned his attention to domestic issues and while referring to advances in recent years such as a drastic reduction in inflation rate and restoration of economic stability, conceding that there are structural issues, especially in the banking sector, that require immediate and serious attention.

"The Central Bank of Iran has taken steps [toward implementing reforms] but more work is needed to make the structure of the banking system conform to international standards," he said.

The administration and CBI are planning a major overhaul in the banking system in the immediate future through their twin Banking Reform Bill and Central Bank Bill that are currently being reviewed in the parliament.

According to Khansari, a number of remaining sanctions coupled with the extreme cautious approach of major European banks have impeded the development of banking ties, "which we hope would be eased with the help of ambassadors acting as the official representatives of other nations in Iran".

As a major player in the international banking sector, especially in Europe, the TCCIM head called on Switzerland to help remove these hurdles and referred to recent deals signed with Austria's Oberbank and Denmark's Danske Bank worth a total of €1.5 billion ($1.8 billion) as positive signs.

He also pointed to low Iran-Switzerland trade levels as a result of sanctions, but said prospects are rising since the volume of trade has increased from €7.7 billion ($9 billion) in 2015 to €11.5 billion ($13.5 billion) in the first seven months of 2017 while Iran is ready to notch it up further.

According to Khansari, TCCIM has recently established an investment services bureau and held meetings with representatives of credible international institutions such as the Canadian Fraser Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Call for Image Change

Markus Leitner, the Swiss ambassador, said during the meeting that Tehran needs to change the image that is currently being projected in European nations, adding that TCCIM can act as a good liaison between the two countries.

"At present, Swiss businessmen only see the incomplete and non-transparent image presented in the European media so entities such as TCCIM need to send trade delegations and hold events there to present Swiss traders with a clear picture of all the opportunities and high capacities of the Iranian economy," he added.

According to the ambassador, Iran is a strong country and must endeavor to familiarize foreign investors with its markets and engage them.

Leitner expressed support for increased bilateral ties because developed relations would create a win-win scenario that will benefit both countries.

In conclusion, Khansari referred to Leitner's remarks and said Iran does not expect a sudden jump in bilateral ties, "but the reality is that investment revenue is currently higher in Iran than in other regional countries, which has created a good climate for the activities of Swiss companies in Iran".

screwball · September 28, 2017

This is what we are waiting on...

The Central Bank of Iran has taken steps [toward implementing reforms] but more work is needed to make the structure of the banking system conform to international standards," he said.

The administration and CBI are planning a major overhaul in the banking system in the immediate future through their twin Banking Reform Bill and Central Bank Bill that are currently being reviewed in the parliament.

screwball · September 28, 2017

Central European nation to Iran to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral ties, mainly by resolving banking issues inside and outside Iran.

international traded would be the next step...

screwball · September 28, 2017