Iran to attract $30bn through finance deals

EghtesadOnline: Iran says it expect to clinch foreign finance deal worth a collective of about $30 billion in the near future.

News ID: ۷۴۳۵۷۹

30 August 2017

"Deals worth $29 billion to $30 billion will be signed with four European countries and an Asian country in less than a month," said Mohammad Khazaei, the head of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran.

According to PressTV, Khazaei said the funds would be attracted from Austria, Denmark and Italy, adding that negotiations with Japan "will most probably lead to a deal in the next few months".

The official made the remarks at the 28th Annual Islamic Banking Conference held in Tehran.

He further stressed that Iran would need to elevate its relations with international lenders in order to facilitate its planned foreign finance deals.

Khazaei also emphasized that adequate actions had been taken so that Iran would not be heavily indebted as a result of such deals.

Last week, Iran signed what was later described as its biggest credit line deal in recent years with South Korea’s Eximbank.

The deal envisaged providing as much as €8 billion in loans to finance various projects by South Korean companies in Iran.

The development was seen as a landmark sign in Tehran that showed the return of global trust to the Islamic Republic.

This, as Governor of Central Bank Valiollah Seif wrote in an editorial, was specifically important for Iran given that it came after years of sanctions against Iran.

“As a result of the tyrannical and illegitimate sanctions against the country, not only the provision of new credit lines to finance the construction and production projects of the country was stopped, but the repayment of some of the former loans was also hampered by the disappearance of payment channels," Seif wrote in his editorial in the Persian-language newspaper Jahan-e Sanat.