Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 9
By Fatih Karimov - Trend: There are no Iranian assets blocked in China, the Mehr News Agency quoted Iran-China joint chamber of commerce vice chairman Majid-Reza Hariri as saying.
Some €18 billion, equaling $22 billion, of Iranian oil money is being held in China, he said, adding that China is ready to finance Iranian development projects under very good conditions.
China has agreed to use some money, which is not possible to be transferred, as collateral and invest triple as much of the money for financing projects in Iran, he explained.
The two sides have also reached an agreement to carry out some projects on 50-50 basis. In a normal situation, international financiers do not accept such a condition.
Normally, in finance-based projects, 15 per cent of the money should be provided by the country in which the project is implemented. However, the Chinese side has agreed to reduce the share of Iran to 7.5 percent, Hariri said.
China is Iran's biggest oil costumer, second goods supplier and first non-oil commodities importer in the world.
On October 29, Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani said in a meeting with a senior member of China's State Council that Iran will never forget China's help amid unilateral Western sanctions.
The Iranian Majlis speaker also called for presence of Chinese companies in Iranian oil projects.
On November 1, Iranian media said China has agreed to finance $20 billion in development projects in Iran using oil money not transferred to the Islamic Republic because of international sanctions.
Iran government spokesman Mohammad Bagher Nowbakht said that some $22 billion dollars of Iranian oil money is stuck in China because of sanctions.
Iran's former Deputy Commerce Minister for Economic Affairs, Hamid Safdel said in February that $100 billion worth of Iran's assets have been blocked overseas.
According to Iranian media outlets, the country transferred about $25 billion of assets from European banks to China during 2007 to mid-2011 to prevent any possible block and this amount is still deposited in Chinese banks.
China imported more than $12.3 billion dollars' worth of Iranian oil during the first three quarters of 2013.
Beijing makes Iranian oil payments through its national currency the yuan and deposits it in an internal bank account which is accessible only for purchasing permitted commodities inside China and exporting them to Iran.
Iranian oil customers have not been permitted to allow Iran to exclude oil export revenues abroad since early February on account of U.S sanctions and Tehran can only use the assets for purchasing commodities inside their countries and imports.