Swedish Credit Lines for Iran

EghtesadOnline: After a meeting with the Swedish Minister for European Affairs and Trade Anne Linde, Iran's Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi announced that two Swedish banks will allocate credit lines to Iranian companies in the field of communications and information technology.

News ID: ۷۷۳۹۰۷

13 February 2017

"Our trade volume witnessed a leap last year to reach €250 million and this process will continue in the technology development sector," Vaezi was also quoted as saying by Banker.ir.

Vaezi noted that the Swedish economic delegation's trip to Tehran was a response to US President Donald Trump's enforcement of travel bans and the more Trump insists on his stances, the more the US will become isolated.

"JCPOA [the formal name of Iran's nuclear deal with world powers] is an international agreement and it is not possible for any country to violate it," he concluded.

According to Financial Tribune, the visiting delegates were in Tehran on Saturday as part of a high-ranking political and economic mission led by Swedish Premier Stefan Lofven on a three-day visit.

The delegation included CEOs of companies like Scania, Ericsson, Elekta, Volvo, ABB, Sensys Gatso Group, Swedish Energy Agency, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and Swedish Post and Telecom Authority, along with Danske Bank and EKN (Swedish export credit agency.)

Lofven met with President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday, wherein the president said the European Union should buttress the bloc's banking relations with Iran to optimize the opportunities provided by the 2015 nuclear accord.

Back in 2003 and 2004, Iran was the 21st and 28th exporter to Sweden respectively, though in 2005, it was not among the top 30 exporters to this Scandinavian country.

During the years when sanctions blocked Iran's foreign relations, trade with Sweden shrunk to 25% of what it used to be, dropping from $1.1 billion to $282 million.