A Chinese state-owned investment firm has provided a US$10 billion credit line for Iranian banks, Iran’s central bank president said on Saturday.
The contract was signed in Beijing between CITIC (中國中信) investment group and a delegation of Iranian banks led by central bank president Valiollah Seif.
The Iran Daily said the funds would finance water, energy and transport projects.
Photo: Reuters
Iran is vital to China’s trade ambitions as it develops its trillion-dollar “One Belt, One Road” strategy aimed at dramatically boosting its ties to Europe and Africa.
China is already Iran’s biggest oil customer and accounts for one-thirds of its overall trade.
Bilateral trade was just US$31 billion last year, but the figure jumped more than 30 percent in the first six months of this year.
In addition to the credit line, the Export-Import Bank of China (中國進出口銀行) committed to a further US$10 billion in loans, while the China Development Bank (中國國家開發銀行) signed preliminary deals with Iran for US$15 billion in infrastructure and production projects, Seif said.
The contracts reflect “a strong will for continuation of cooperation between the two countries,” Seif said.
In total, China has agreed to allocate US$35 billion in financing and loans for Iran’s economy, state news agency IRNA quoted Seif as saying.
The credit line will use euros and yuan to help bypass US sanctions that have continued, despite the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2015.
Since the lifting of sanctions, Beijing has opened two credit lines worth US$4.2 billion to build high-speed railway lines linking Tehran with Mashhad and Isfahan, the Iran Daily reported.
The latest move follows an 8 billion euro (US$9.56 billion) credit deal signed with South Korea’s Exim bank last month.
European banks remain wary of penalties from Washington for working with Iran, but talks are said to be at an advanced stage for US$22 billion in credit deals with banks from Austria, Denmark and Germany.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
RSS