Afrouz Bahrami made the statement on the sidelines of a visit to Iraq this week to participate in the Iran-Iraq Joint Trade Commission.
“EGFI has outperformed other similar funds in the region,” he said, the fund’s official website reported.
In a recent twitter account, Bahrami said the EGFI ranked second among guarantee funds in Aman Union after a peer fund in Turkey, in terms of ratio of penetration to total exports, according to Financial Tribune.
Aman Union is a professional forum that brings together commercial and non-commercial risk insurers and reinsurers in member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (DHAMAN).
The union was established in 2009 following an agreement between DHAMAN and the Islamic Corporation for the Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC) to underwrite commercial and non-commercial risk insurers and reinsurers in respective member countries.
The commission for Iran-Iraq commercial cooperation was created to follow up on banking and commercial agreements between two neighbors following President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Iraq in mid-March.
Besides efforts to remove trade hurdles, the commission focuses on bilateral cooperation to help achieve the $20 billion two-way trade target.
Among other things, the commission will review trends in banking, standards, customs, industries and investment, technical and engineering programs plus transportation.
Opening 2 Offices
On the outcome of her visit to Iraq, Bahrami spoke of an agreement based on which EGFI will open an office in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and another in the south of the country. The office in the Kurdish region is ready for inauguration.
She said the EGFI offices in Iraq will help contribute to the process of assessing the creditworthiness of Iraqi companies.
Over the past ten years EGFI has provided close to $3.5 billion in export guarantees for trade with Iraq and paid $113 million in compensation.
More recently it issued export guarantees worth $630 million for companies exporting goods to Iraq, which accounts for almost 40% of the fund’s total commitments.
The official spoke of plans to replace bank guarantees issued for exporters of technical and engineering services to Iraq, with guarantee cover from the EGFI.
Bahrami pointed to Iran’s efforts to build trade with neighboring countries as an effective approach to mitigate losses inflicted by the hostile US economic sanctions, saying the fund has a mandate to help shield non-oil exporters from potential risks.
Iran exported $8.3 billion worth of non-oil goods to Iraq in the first 11 months of the previous fiscal year (March 2018-Feb 2019) up 54% and 45% in volume and value respectively compared to a year earlier.
The EGFI was established in 1973, as the first export credit agency in the Middle East and North Africa region. The state-owned body affiliated to Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade promotes Iran’s non-oil exports by providing Iranian companies export guarantees and insurance to cover risks in and emanating from exports.