Central Bank of Iran and the National Bank of Kazakhstan signed an agreement on Monday, during President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s visit to Tehran, to expand banking relations. The agreement will enhance supervisory affairs and information exchange between the two sides.
The agreement is also set to pave the way for establishing overseas branches of the two countries’ banks, the CBI said in a press release.
Officials from the two countries’ central banks had earlier discussed the expansion of relations during Oleg Alexandrovich Smolaykov, deputy governor of NBK, visit to Tehran in April.
From 2005 until the 1st quarter of 2014 Iran’s direct investments in Kazakhstan amounted to $123 million, while Kazakhstan’s direct investments into Iran for the same period totaled $10.4 million. Iran and Kazakhstan have the potential to boost their annual bilateral trade to $5 billion, reports and officials say.
President Nazarbayev had announced earlier the two countries are determined to increase two-way trade to five times over and above the current volume.
