Tehran, Iran, March 14
Trend:
Recently, a senior Russian official said the country’s largest carmaker AvtoVaz is negotiating the assembly and sale of its cars in Iran, where there is massive demand for new automobiles.
“In the automobile sector for the next Iranian year (starts on March21, 2019), we cannot count too much on joint ventures for imports from foreign countries, given the problems that this industry has been facing,” Member of Iran's Industry and mine commission Hamideh Zar Abadi told Trend.
"I confirm the talks (between Iranian and Russian car manufacturers),” she said. “The efforts are under way, but the outcome depends on how much we can prove our transparency in the monetary and banking sector.”
She cited two issues of the industry in the coming year, saying that first of all it seems that the policy to ban car imports will continue in the next year and, on the other hand, all foreign affairs have been tied to the adopting FATF-related bills.
"Other countries will consider these issues before becoming our business partner," she said.
"In the current year (started on March21, 2018), we also had the same negotiations with Renault, but they were abandoned as a result of the withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear deal,” Zarabadi said.
“Therefore, all this depends on the country's conditions and the ratification of the FATF-related bills next year," she said.
“We need to see what the terms of a foreign partner are and what our conditions are,” she added.
“These kind of proposals are being offered to Iran, and other countries are sending their economic and industrial delegations to establish business relations with Iran,” she said.
“I doubt that if we do not prove our transparency, they will invest in Iran,” she said. “All the positive results are related to the FATF.”
“FAFT had already set a deadline for Iran to join in. By approaching the end of this period, Iran's job will be harder and foreign trade partners will not proceed with Iran any further,” she explained.
“In every business relationship, the transparency is a basic principle of monetary relations and banking. If our monetary and banking relationships won’t be transparent, they will not come into Iran to invest in the car industry,” she added.
On Feb. 22, the global watchdog FATF welcomed Iran's measures to strengthen its anti-money laundering legislation, giving the country an extended June deadline to complete the reforms.
The body maintained that financial institutions operating in Iran would face 'increased international scrutiny', should the country fail to take those measures before the extended deadline.
Iran has already ratified two of the amendment bills on the country’s domestic laws regarding money laundering and terrorism financing. But the UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, known as Palermo Convention in Iran, as well as the bill on Iran’s accession to the convention against the funding of terrorism (CFT), are the two controversial bills undergoing intensive reviews in the Expediency Council for the final verdict.