Iran Fortifies Ties With IDB, Malaysia

EghtesadOnline: Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Masoud Karbasian met with top-ranking officials of the Islamic Development Bank as well as his counterpart from Malaysia.

News ID: ۷۷۹۸۵۴

23 October 2017

Karbasian met them on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund held during Oct. 13-15 in Washington, DC.

Leading a high-ranking delegation, which also includes the Central Bank of Iran Governor Valiollah Seif, the minister conferred with Bandar M.H. Hajjar, president of IDB Group, the Economy Ministry's official news portal reported.

In the meeting, also attended by Mohammad Khazaei, director of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran, and several "relevant and high-ranking regional executives", the IDB chief referred to good Iran-IDB cooperation in the past and the present.

"The IDB will strive to continue its cooperation with member states, regardless of any and all political and other considerations," Financial Tribune quoted Hajjar as saying.

In the present membership of the bank, which consists of 57 countries, Iran ranks third with a total share of 8.25% and stands behind Libya and Saudi Arabia that respectively hold 9.43% and 23.50% of shares. The basic condition for membership is that the prospective member country should be a member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

Hajjar's remarks are significant, especially since US President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he has opted to not certify Iran's nuclear accord and expects the US Congress to negotiate changes in the deal for it to better suit US interests.

In the meeting with IDB officials, Karbasian called on them to consider the rights of all member states and pointed to the multilateral development bank's special standing in the region.

He also complained that the bank has had a subpar cooperation with Iran with regard to problems facing Iranian officials who have been unable to attend a number of IDB meetings as a result of visa issues and called on Hajjar to look into the hurdles.

Potential fields of further collaboration between IDB and Iranian executive branches were reportedly examined in the meeting, while both sides spoke of ways of continuing joint ventures stronger than before.

Karbasian talked about ways through which the Iranian private sector will be able to enjoy facilities offered by IDB and it was decreed that both sides would negotiate further when an IDB delegation travels to Iran in the foreseeable future.

Expanding Economic, Financial Ties with Malaysia

The Iranian economy minister also met with Johari Abdul Ghani, Malaysia's second finance minister, and stressed on making further endeavors to develop Iran-Malaysia economic relations.

According to Karbasian, in light of Malaysia's importance as a Muslim nation and as both countries have enjoyed friendly ties in the past, their current level of economic ties is not proportionate to their political ones.

Abdul Ghani said Malaysian companies are eager to work in Iran while pointing to negotiations by unnamed Malaysian firms to finance the subway line for "a major Iranian metropolitan area" as a positive development and stressed the continuation of cooperation.

The Malaysian official said he is ready to travel to Iran as part of a top-tier commercial delegation comprising of the Southeast Asian country's minister of international trade and industry and private sector chiefs in early 2018.

Both sides also discussed ways of expanding financial and economic ties, especially through banking collaborations and extension of credit lines.