Cooperatives Development Bank of Iran will establish branches in domestic free trade zones, the bank's managing director said here on Tuesday.
IRNA News Agency quoted Mashallah Azimi as saying that, "Cooperatives Development Bank also plans to establish branches in foreign countries to broaden its activities."
"The government has allocated 5 trillion rials (Some $500 million) to the Cooperatives Development Bank out of the Foreign Exchange Fund as the initial capital of the bank," he explained.
The volume of investments in the country''s cooperatives sector should reach $390 billion by 2015, Azimi added.
The Cooperative Development Bank was officially inaugurated on August 9.
The goal of this bank is to create jobs and offer facilities to cooperatives to strengthen this sector.
The Cooperative Development Bank will function like other banks; however, its focus will be on providing services to cooperatives.