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Exim Bank extends $200m credit line to
Iran
NEW DELHI - India's Exim
Bank has extended its largest ever line of export credit
of US$200 million to Iran.
The facility, which
could be availed by any of the seven Iranian banks -
Bank Mellat, Bank Melli Iran, Bank Sepah, Bank Sedarat
Iran, Bank Tejarat, Bank of Industry and Mine and Export
Development Bank - has a credit period of up to eight
years, a bank release said in New Delhi.
India
hopes its exports, particularly of equipment and
technology in power, railways, automobiles, cement and
pharmaceuticals, will be helped by the move.
The
two countries have also signed seven agreements on
cooperation in the political, economic and scientific
following the visit of President Sayed Mohammad Khatami
to New Delhi.
The agreements on cooperation in
the scientific area were signed by Iranian Science,
Technology and Research Minister Dr Mostafa Moin and his
Indian counterpart Murli Manohar Joshi. A Memorandum of
Understanding on a road map to strategic cooperation
between the two countries was signed by Dr Kamal
Kharrazi and Yashwant Sinha, the foreign ministers of
the two countries.
Commenting on the Exim loan,
the bank commented, "India's exports to Iran are
expected to receive a quantum jump with the
establishment of this $200 million medium-term LoC to
Iran."
India's exports to Iran rose by 13.5
percent to $252 million in 2001-02 from $222 million in
the previous fiscal.
Major export items included
drugs and pharmaceuticals, organic and inorganic and
agro chemicals, iron ore and primary and semi-finished
iron and steel, meat and preparations, paints and
enamels, manmade yarn and fabrics, rice, processed
minerals, tea and auto and bicycle parts.
The
bank said that a number of Indian companies were engaged
in negotiations with their Iranian counterparts for
export of equipment and technology to Iran in the
sectors like power, railways, port, hydrocarbons,
automobiles, cement and pharma.
"Prospects of
setting up joint ventures in Iran in the areas of
petrochemicals and pharmaceuticals, are also quite
promising," the Exim bank said.
The $200 million
LoC was signed by Exim Bank's CEO T C Venkat Subramanian
and the representatives of seven banks in Iran, in the
presence of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and
Iranian President H S M Khatami on January 25 in New
Delhi.
Under the agreement, Iranian importers
would make advance payment of 15 percent of contract
value and credit would be provided by Exim Bank for 85
percent of the contract value to the concerned Iranian
bank.
Iran's gross domestic product is estimated
to have grown by 5 percent in 2002 and the country had
foreign exchange reserves of $17.47 billion in 2001,
representing over 11 months of import cover.
Highlighting the hydrocarbon resource base of
Iran, the bank said it included 90-95 billion barrels of
crude oil, which was around 10 percent of the world's
known oil reserves and 17 trillion cubic meter of gas.
"Iran is one of the major sources for India for import
of crude oil," the bank said.
(Asia Pulse/PTI)
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