Baku, Azerbaijan, Dec.2
By Fatih Karimov - Trend:
Iran has acted weak, and has not taken strong steps to enter the Russian market, Mojtaba Khosrotaj, the Iranian deputy industry minister said.
"I think we have not been planning well to enter the Russian market, he said, adding that the lack of direct flights between Tehran and Moscow is a major problem," Iran's Fars news agency reported on Dec. 2.
"We have held meeting in Astrakhan. Russian officials have introduced a bank that will cooperate with Iranian exporters and importers for financial transactions through opening the letters of credit (LCs)," he said.
"Russia has good capabilities in such production sectors as wood, steel, oil and gas, as well as petrochemical industries," he said. "Iran can benefit from that."
Iran and Russia will soon sign a monetary treaty to remove the US dollar from banking transactions and monetary exchanges.
Under the treaty the national currencies of both countries will be accepted in bilateral trade whose value will be determined based on the Special Drawing Rights or SDR recognized by the IMF.
The move helps to prevent the dollar domination and undermine the US sanctions against both countries. The volume of trade between Moscow and Tehran stood at around 1.5 billion dollars back in 2013.
In view of the rising level of ties between the two sides the number is expected to reach three billion dollars by the end of 2015.
Under the deal, Iranian companies can import different types of catalysts or chemical additives for petrochemical industry in return for selling chemical products to Russia.
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