Tehran, Iran, Sept.25
Trend:
Export Guarantee Fund of Iran is cooperating with funds of the region, despite US sanctions, board member of the fund Arash Shahr Ayini told Trend in an interview.
"We have close relations with neighbor countries that are members of Aman Union. The union supports export guarantee funds in Islamic countries to expand trade between them," he said.
"We will attend the 10th annual meeting of Aman Union in Muscat, Oman, and will discuss issues related to bilateral cooperation with our counterparts from Turkey, Oman and other countries," he added.
"The first function of the exports funds is reducing risk for foreign buyers. For example, if an Iranian company wants to exports goods to Turkish company, the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran will minimize the risks for Turkish company; therefore, the most important point is trading information of buyers," he said.
"The first objective is setting a data network of buyers and sharing information. Therefore, payment records would not piled up in one place. For example, a foreign customer may not pay despite the insurance of Iranian company, so when we have debt collection issue, the cooperation with other countries in this field helps us," he added.
"Thus, sharing information, debt collection about underwriting, discussion of trade and economic sectors' risks for companies and buyers in member countries are the forms of cooperation between regional funds," he said.
"Of course, the sanctions will slow down our work. We have problem in the area of implementation, but they have not created obstacles for sharing information. However, in the field re-insurance operations, the sanctions have caused difficulties for us," he said referring to effect of the US sanctions on regional cooperation.
"After Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we signed one of the biggest re-insurance contracts with one of the largest re-insurance company in the world, but after US withdrew from the nuclear deal, we were forced to suspend the contract," he added.
The official refused to name the company.
Aman Union established in 2009 unites commercial and non-commercial risks insurers and reinsurers in member countries of the Organization of the Islamic Conference and of the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation.