Iran’s foreign minister will visit the Kurdistan Region during a trip to Iraq that is aimed at boosting economic ties, a diplomat announced.
Iran’s foreign minister will visit the Kurdistan Region during a trip to Iraq that is aimed at boosting economic ties, a diplomat announced.
An environment conducive to attracting Chinese investment to Iran should be created, a former diplomat said.
“China is important to Iran from international, political, economic and oil perspectives … Favorable conditions should be created in the investment sector so that Iran and China can work together more closely,” Ali Khorram, who formerly served as Tehran’s ambassador in Beijing, told Mehr News Agency in a recent interview.
He added that the two countries are facing similar economic issues and need each other to advance their strategic goals.
“I believe China will maintain its ties with Iran as long as its [trade] confrontation with the United States continues because Iran has similar challenges as China, given the fact that we are experiencing trade restrictions imposed by the Americans,” he added.
As the main party to blame for the possible failure of efforts to set up a special financial mechanism for trading with Iran, Europe will have to ponder over the implications of its inaction, a senior foreign affairs official said.
“Iran will hold Europe accountable for not establishing the SPV [Special Purpose Vehicle] … Iran has met all its obligations under the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the formal name of Iran's nuclear deal] so far, but its patience has a limit,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Saturday.
The European Union has proposed a financial system through which Iran would be able to continue its international trade despite the US restrictions placed on Tehran after US President Donald Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal last May.
The global petrochemical industry is poised for solid growth over the next nine years, with nearly 1,158 planned and announced plants slated to come online primarily in Asia and the Middle East region, said a report, released on the sidelines of an industry event in Dubai.
Trade talks resuming Monday between the US and China could signal whether crude and LNG flows will pick up between the two countries this year or stay mired in the trade dispute.
The largest solar farm, with a capacity to produce 1,000 megawatts of electricity, will be constructed in Markazi Province in central Iran, deputy governor for economic affairs said in the provincial capital Arak at the weekend.
“To be built on 2,000 hectares near the city of Saveh, the project will be financed by a UK-based Iranian investor,” Saeed Farrokhi said without providing names.
Equipment and panels needed to produce 100 MW (of the total 1,000 MW capacity) have been imported and the project will commence in the near future.
Subsea pipe laying of the second main pipeline of phases 22-24 of the South Pars Gas Field in the Persian Gulf hve been completed, the three phases’ development manager Farhad Izadjoo said.
Now Platform 23 is connected to the offshore refinery, and gas is transferred via a 100 kilometer subsea pipeline, the Oil Ministry news portal Shana reported at the weekend.
The three phases will daily produce 56 million cubic meters of natural gas, 50 mcm of methane, 2,900 tons of LPG, 2,750 tons of ethane, 75,000 barrels of gas condensates and 400 tons of sulfur, the manager said.
Iran and Afghanistan started a new round of talks on water sharing from the Hirmand (also known as Helmand) River and its tributary.
Afghan deputy minister of water, Khan Mohammad Takal conferred Saturday in Tehran with Abbas Soroush, deputy manager at the National Water and Wastewater Engineering Company at the Energy Ministry.
"Negotiations focused on resolving the dispute over the critical share of the two countries which was determined as per a treaty signed in 1973 in Kabul," the news agency said, adding that Kabul had not fulfilled its commitments.
As of Sunday evening there was no official report on the outcome of the meeting and if there had been any breakthrough.
Iran traded 112,669 tons of non-oil commodities worth $141.2 million with Balkan countries during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (March 21-Dec. 21) to register a 0.55% and 23.02% growth in tonnage and value respectively compared with last year’s corresponding period.
Latest data released by the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration show Iran’s exports to the Balkan states totaled 95,488 tons worth $96.94 million during the period, indicating a 44.01% and 34.46% increase in tonnage and value respectively year-on-year. Imports stood at 17,181 tons worth $44.26 million, down in tonnage by 62.44% and up in value by 3.7% YOY.
Located in southeastern Europe, the Balkans, or the Balkan Peninsula is a geographic area in southeastern Europe with various disputed definitions. Six countries, namely Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia and Montenegro, are positioned entirely within the Balkans while more than 50% of land area of Croatia, Greece and Serbia are within the Balkans.
Iran’s Gini index was at 0.3981 in the last fiscal year (March 2017-18), indicating a 2.08% rise compared with the year before (March 2016-17), Fars News Agency cited a report by Plan and Budget Organization as saying.
The Gini index for Iran's urban areas increased by 1.69% last year to reach 0.3793, while rural areas saw their Gini index rise by 5.86% to hit 0.3559 for the same period.
As per the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), the Gini index is stipulated to drop to 0.34 by the end of the fiscal 2021-22.
The Gini coefficient ranks the income inequality in a place on a scale from zero—no inequality—to 1, maximum inequality. In other words, the closer the number is to 1, the more wealth is concentrated in the hands of fewer people, thus the bigger income disparity.
One way of measuring inequality is the Gini coefficient, developed by Italian statistician Corrado Gini in 1912. It aggregates the gaps between people’s incomes into a single measure.
High customs duties, non-sustainability and the small scale of businesses, export companies and holdings are the three main handicaps facing Iran's agricultural exports to Russia, the head of Agriculture and Food Commission with Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said.
“Since we are not a member of the Eurasian Union, the customs duties imposed on Iranian goods don’t allow them to compete price-wise with those of the rival countries,” Gholamali Faroghi was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture in a notice called on exporters to keep on repatriating their currency earning on Integrated Forex Deals System, locally known as Nima.
The notice which is published in the ICCIMA website says the Chamber is fully aware of the hurdles on the way of export sector posed by currency repatriation mechanisms initiated by Central Bank of Iran and Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade and assured exporters that the body is endeavoring to resolve the issues.
Close to €22 billion was allocated by the Central Bank of Iran for import of essential goods during the first nine months of the current fiscal (March 21- December 21).
According to the CBI website, in a meeting attended by senior officials of the bank and members of Iran Chamber of Commerce, it was announced that €7 billion was sold to importers via Nima (a local acronym for the integrated forex deals system) during the period.
Gholam Reza Panahi, the CBI deputy for forex affairs, said the allocation of currency indicates CBI support for both importers and exporters.
Governor of the Central Bank of Iran Abdolnaser Hemmati said Sunday the regulator has proposed to the government lopping off four zeros from the rial.
In a meeting with a group of lawmakers, Hemmati said if endorsed by the government the proposal will be sent to the parliament to become law.
Head of the Majlis Economic Commission said the decision to drop four zeros from national currency is on the parliament agenda and studies about the CBI proposition are underway.
Mohammad Reza Pour-Ebrahimi said it was proposed initially to lop one zero off the rial but as dropping zeros incur high costs, dropping four zeros instead of one seemed more reasonable.
The secretary of Iran E-Commerce Union says the new US sanctions have had an impact on local startups and online businesses.
“US sanctions have impacted Iranian startups and the local e-commerce sector in three ways: harmed the people’s purchasing power, forced local and foreign firms to put their operations in Iran on hold and barred local startups from using online services sold by international firms,” Shayan Shalileh told the Financial Tribune.
Admitting that Iran’s economy is facing challenges due to the US restrictions, Shalileh says, “Purchasing power of the people has taken a hit. As such, households are cutting unnecessary spending. Due to this bitter fact, revenues of many local startups have also plummeted.”
“Foreign investors, who had made a foray into Iran’s online business sector after Tehran signed the historic nuclear deal in 2016 with the six world powers, have walked away,” fearing the US wrath, Shalileh said without naming the companies.
He noted that due to the ongoing economic difficulties most local investment firms and venture capital funds have also suspended their operations. “Literally, everything has been put on hold.”
The young unionist (born in 1983) says, “Appointing Jahromi to the top ICT job was a step in the right direction. He has provided startups and e-commerce firms the opportunity to communicate with a part of the state apparatus that for years was unreachable.”
Shalileh says, “I’m not in a place to comment on Jahromi’s technical knowledge in the ICT field. I’m just saying one of the perks of working with Jahromi and his men is that they are young enough to understand the concerns of our generation. We have been able to establish a discourse with them. This makes work easier.”
Two Iran-made satellites have passed pre-launch tests and are ready for launch.
An agreement has been signed between mobile operator MTN-Irancell and the Mashhad Municipality as part of efforts to transform the metropolis in northeastern Khorasan Razavi Province into a smart city.
As per the agreement, Irancell will help the municipality use information and communication technology for gathering, saving, monitoring and analyzing urban data plus increasing the quality and efficiency of urban management and public services.
It is hoped that the agreement will help push Iran’s most important shrine city a step closer toward becoming a smart, clean, and environment-friendly city that can effectively support knowledge-based and technology firms, ict.gov.ir reported.
Optimizing energy consumption and enhancing urban services, especially public transportation, along with strengthening startups and promoting sustainable growth are enshrined in the rare agreement.
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