A new Bank is created!
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President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) and his visiting Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez wave to reporters in Tehran.
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Compiled by Sadeq Dehqan
Expansion of economic ties between Iran and Venezuela entered a new phase on the third day of a visit to Tehran by President Hugo Chavez with the opening of an Iran-Venezuela Bank and fresh talks on promoting energy collaboration.
The new bank was launched on Friday in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Chavez. The bank started its activities with an initial capital $1.2 billion. The two countries each have a 50 percent equity, Mehr News Agency reported.
The Iran Export Promotion Bank upon authorization from the government, launched the bank on behalf of Iran that will offer financial resources for joint developmental projects.
Since the bank is based in Iran it will abide by local banking regulations and the Central bank of Iran (CBI) will supervise its activities like all other local banks and major lending institutions.
Based on an agreement, the bank can establish any number of representative offices in both countries, and if necessary in a third country. Some of the activities the bank will undertake include credits for exports and implementing investment projects in industrial, trade, housing and energy sectors.
The seventh meeting of Iran-Venezuela Energy Committee opened on Friday in the presence of oil ministers of the two countries. In the meeting Iran’s Gholam Hossein Nozari and his Venezuelan counterpart, Rafael Romirez reviewed details of the topics discussed in the past six meetings and ways of handling problems in two-way energy cooperation.
It is expected that a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be concluded between the two ministers.
