Swiss Ambassador in Tehran Julio Haus met with head of Iran Mercantile Exchange Hamed Soltaninejad on Monday to discuss post-sanctions’ opportunities for expanding economic ties between Iran and Switzerland’s commodity markets.
Haus referred to implementation of modern financial instruments, including option contracts and diversification of listed commodities in futures contracts, as an important factor in IME’s success.
“IME has the potential to turn into a global commodity market in the Middle East and Asia,” he said.
Soltaninejad highlighted plans for attracting more foreign suppliers to offer commodities at IME and helping Iranian suppliers trade their commodities in international commodity markets.
“IME is striving to facilitate the activities of international forfaiting institutions in Iran to raise funds for importers and exporters active in IME and create suitable ground for long-term credit transactions,” said Soltaninejad.
Forfaiting involves purchasing of exporters’ receivables at a discount by paying cash. The forfaiter becomes the entity to whom the importer is obliged to pay its debt. Forfaiting can be applied to a wide range of trade and even purely financial receivables and payment instruments.
Soltaninejad referred to reducing the risks of adverse price fluctuations in international markets and expanding interactions with international stock exchange markets as other top agendas of the IME.
“Boosting trades at IME’s export trading floor is our primary objective in the post-sanctions era,” he said. “We are also planning to diversify the commodities offered at IME’s export trading floor, including petrochemicals, minerals and cement, while encouraging foreign suppliers to offer their commodities via IME.
