Page 20 - bne IntelliNews Country Report: Iran Dec17

Cooperation Organization
Uzbek and Iranian entrepreneurs sign agreements worth $25.5mn
Iran and Russia’s Export Insurance Agency sign memorandum
repeatedly suggesting it feels it is ready to become more than an observer member of the Asian economic group. Now-removed sanctions barred the Islamic Republic from joining the seven-country bloc for years.
'Iran possesses large capabilities and capacities for economic, cultural, and social ties with the member countries of Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Kazakhstan, as a key member, supports Iran's presence in the organisation,' Kusherbayev said to reporters touring the province, located along the southern coast of the Caspian Sea and in the adjacent Central Alborz mountains.
Kusherbayev added that he was following in the footsteps of other Kazakh regional governors in visiting Mazandaran, which serves as Iran’s maritime gateway to Central Asian countries and Russia.
The SCO is an inter-governmental organisation formed in 2001 by the leaders and presidents of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan with the purpose of maintaining an equilibrium in the face of the influence of the US and Nato.
A business forum held in Iran as part of an Uzbekistan delegation’s official visit to Iran on October 18 saw entrepreneurs of both countries sign agreements worth $25.5mn mostly on agricultural and textile products, Trend news agency reported on October 19. The two sides also signed “mutually beneficial bilateral documents” worth $7.5mn, the report said.
Uzbekistan is reportedly interested in buying crude oil from Iran. The prospect emerged following a meeting between Uzbek Foreign Minister Abdulaziz Kamilov and Iran’s Petroleum Minister Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, SHANA Energy News Network reported on October 18.
The Central Asian doubly landlocked nation, under the new leadership of reformist President Shavkat Mirzyoyev, is looking to increase trade with Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) neighbours and, a little further afield, with Iran. The two sides are also mulling the improving of their banking and visa issuance regimes to boost trade.
Iran’s Central Bank (CBI) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR) on October 15 in Moscow, Islamic Republic News Agency reported.
The news follows successful moves by Iranian officials who were in Washington, DC on October 14 for meetings on the sidelines of the World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) annual gatherings, in which they set out to build on several credit guarantee fund commitments signed off by countries including France, Denmark, South Korea and Italy.
The memorandum with EXIAR was signed by the CBI’s deputy head of currency affairs, Ahmad Araqchi, and the EXIAR managing director Alexey Tyupanov. Araqchi commented: “This helps build new ties between our two countries and will help intensify financing projects in both countries.” Tyupanov said the Russian state-backed export insurance organisation would help co-finance several projects in the Iranian private and public sectors.
20 IRAN Country Report November 2017 www.intellinews.com