Vietnam, Iran Develop Banking Ties

The Central Bank of Iran and the State Bank of Vietnam have agreed to establish correspondent relations, said the governor of the CBI, Valiollah Seif.

“In relation to the development and implementation of correspondent relations, the central banks of Iran and Vietnam have reached an agreement,” Seif was quoted as saying by IRNA.

During a visit to Hanoi on Thursday and talks with senior banking officials of the South East Asian country, Seif said banking transactions between Tehran and Hanoi will be in line with the interest of the two nations and will foster economic and trade ties.

Referring to previous negotiations that took place earlier in the year in Tehran and concluded with an accord signed between the leaders of both countries, Seif said during his visit to Vietnam, details pertaining to the implementation of the agreements were thrashed out.

“In addition to the emphasis that was put on past agreements based on the accord, both sides agreed to a joint bank account mechanism to handle business deals,” he said.

The CBI governor also pointed to bank card agreements between the two countries, saying based on a new provision, residents and tourists of both countries will be able to use their cards to make payments in the host country, a move “that will play an important role in the promotion of business deals.”

“Guaranteeing the implementation of the agreements signed is also noteworthy,” he said, announcing that for the set goals and plans to materialize, “it was decided that a joint banking committee be formed.”

  Expanding Trade

According to the official, the said committee will hold intermittent sessions in Tehran and Hanoi to follow up on the implementation process of the agreements made between the two countries.

Referring to the high potential for economic and business collaboration between the two sides, Seif said President Hassan Rouhani has emphasized that the number of deals should increase in the interest of both nations.

The president stressed that the volume trade must increase fivefold and both presidents emphasized that commerce be strengthened to annually reach $2 billion, he said.

 Before his trip to the Vietnam, the CBI official had called the proposal to create joint banking accounts between the two countries “the best instrument and the fastest way to augment trade.”

He put the present value of annual Vietnam-Iran trade at $350-400 million.

Seif is accompanying Rouhani on his tour of Southeast Asia that takes him to Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand. During the two-day stay in Vietnam, Rouhani co-chaired a meeting of the two sides’ high-ranking delegations with his counterpart, Tran Dai Quang, focused on expanding bilateral cooperation.

One of the main reasons Seif accompanied the president to Vietnam was to improve banking ties “Currently, not many banking deals take place between the two countries and even those that are made are via banks of third-party countries. Our goal is to create sustainable ties with Vietnam banks to pave the way for improved trade.”

Noting that negotiations had taken place between CBI deputies and their Vietnamese counterparts, he said both sides have developed a good understanding of each other “and we hope to achieve the desired results by establishing stronger banking relations.”