The 2016 Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the IMF and the World Bank Group was held in Washington DC., during the week of October 3-9 and, on the sidelines of the event, Iran’s Tayebnia held separate meetings with economy ministers of a number of countries investigating banking and customs challenges faced by Iran.
Speaking at a meeting with Mehmet Şimşek, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs, the Iranian economy minister pointed to the recent developments and ending of sanctions calling for expediting expansion of bilateral economic ties.
Tayebnia further emphasized the need to boost banking relations between Tehran and Ankara adding “Iran’s banking system is ready to elevate broker relations with Turkish banks and we hope newly-reached agreements would facilitate the cooperation process.”
Tayebnia went on to point to previous suitable bilateral cooperation in the field of cross-border trade between the two sides voicing Iran’s readiness to enhance trade ties with Turkey on road to creating a common customs gate in order to provide a fundamental change in the bilateral trade.
He criticized the long lines of trucks at joint borders of Iran and Turkey for customs affairs noting that Iran has previously shown in practice its preparedness to completely eliminate existing problems.
Turkish Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek, for his part, referred to good and developing cultural and political relations between the two parties appreciating the positive look held by the Iranian government towards expansion of bilateral ties though the current trade turnover between Tehran and Ankara is far from satisfactory.
He welcomed the initiative to develop customs and trade cooperation expressing Turkey’s readiness to taking effective steps in this regard.
At the end of his remarks, Şimşek voiced Ankara’s readiness to share fruitful experiences in attracting private sector investment in projects and stressed that grounds have been provided for a number of major Turkish banks to develop their cooperation with Iranian banks.
Pier Carlo Padoan, Minister of Economy and Finance of Italy, also at a meeting with Iran’s Tayebnia expressed his willingness to make a visit to Tehran in near future in order to finalize monetary and banking agreements.
“Italy believes in meeting obligations and enhancing ties with Iran,” noted Padoan underscoring that no effort will be spared in this regard.
The official said Italian firms and banks are determined to reinvigorate bilateral relations.
Iran’s economy minister, for his part, criticized the slow fulfillment of obligations on the part of the West calling for expansion of ties between world and Iranian banks.
He commented that bolstering of relations with Iran would benefit all countries; “security and stability could never be boosted in the absence of Iran.”
“In the wake of the post-JCPOA era, collective will need to be directed to implementation of agreements,” he continued.
He later stressed that Iran considers foreign proposals in view of current conditions with an emphasis on science and technology transfer; “Italians are eager to collaborate with Iran while they need to take more serious measures to remove persisting barriers.”
In yet another meeting with his Indian counterpart Arun Jaitley, Iran’s Ali Tayebnia emphasized the need for continuous transfer of the funds from the sale of oil to the South Asian country.
The official deemed launching of broker relations as Iran’s top priority; “despite constructive talks, no resolution has been achieved to resume these relations.”
Also at the meeting, the Indian finance minister highlighted that India is still committed to the oil fund transfer plan.
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