Tehran, Iran, Dec. 14
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Russia’s Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs (Vnesheconombank, VEB) is in Iran to follow its “huge plans” for expanding cooperation with Iranian counterparts.
“We have huge plans for expanding cooperation with Iranian banks. We have been and will go on discussing and seeing mutual points of interest and areas where to expand ties,” Ilya Parukh, head of North Asia and Middle East at VEB’s Financial Institutions Department told Trend.
“As part of efforts to reload our mutual ties, yesterday [Dec. 13] we held meetings with counterparts and we do hope to hold more meetings,” he said.
On his view of the Iranian market he said, “The start was quite good. Iran is an opening market after the removal of sanctions. All Russian companies are interested in entering this market. As bankers, we are going to provide our services.”
Tehran and Moscow signed a sum of nine memorandums of understanding in different economic fields December 13.
The cooperation pacts were signed between Iranian Communications and Information Technology Minister Mahmoud Vaezi and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak within the framework of Joint Iran-Russia Economic Cooperation Commission in Tehran. The cooperation pacts covered vast areas from insurance to energy, from industry to commerce.
One of the agreements was between Russia’s Gazprom Neft and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) over feasibility studies on development of two oil fields. Gazprom will study both Changouleh and Cheshmeh-Khosh oil fields in western Iran.