Iran’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mahmoud Vaezi told Azerbaijan’s Trend News Agency that in addition to the joint bank, the two neighbors are also in talks on opening branches of the two countries’ banks in Baku and Tehran.
Vaezi, who is also co-chairman of Iran-Azerbaijan inter-governmental commission, added that a number of Iran’s private banks are interested in operating in Azerbaijan.
The minister said the main obstacle to banking cooperation between Tehran and Baku is the sanctions on Iran’s financial sector, which do not allow banking cooperation between the two countries to attain an appropriate level.
“Bank Melli Iran has a branch in Azerbaijan, but it is not active,” Vaezi noted, adding that preliminary talks on the expansion of banking cooperation between the two countries have been held and the problems are expected to be solved during an upcoming visit to Iran by Governor of the Central Bank of Azerbaijan Elman Rustamov.
Vaezi, however, did not mention the exact date of Rustamov’s visit.
The Iranian minister also touched upon the funds frozen in Azerbaijani bank accounts estimated at $200 million.
“Representatives of the banking sectors of Azerbaijan and Iran are discussing the use of this capital,” he said, adding, “A part of these funds is planned to be directed to the [Iranian] oil sector, and this was discussed during my last visit to Baku. Another portion of the funds is to be used to increase the capital of Bank Melli Iran.”
Vaezi underlined that further development of the banking cooperation is necessary for expanding trade ties between Tehran and Baku.
“Currently, the trade between our countries is about $500 million…. I think that it’s not a very good indicator for neighboring countries and peoples so close to each other. Azerbaijan and Iran have set a goal to increase this figure fourfold to $2 billion,” he said.
Source: IRNA- Date: (25 August 2015)