Iran, China Ink $10bln Finance Deal
The CITIC Trust, a major Chinese investment company, signed an agreement with five Iranian banks to open a $10bln line of credit to support construction projects in the Islamic Republic.
The agreement was signed between the representatives of CITIC Trust and a consortium of Iranian banks at CITIC Group headquarters in Beijing on Thursday.
The Iranian banks included Bank of Industry and Mine, Refah Bank, Parsian Bank, Bank Pasargad and Export Development Bank of Iran.
According to the major deal, the CITIC Trust would provide loans to the Iranian banks to fund projects in areas such as energy, natural environment, transportation and the management of water resources.
The agreement was signed in a ceremony attended by Governor of Central Bank of Iran (CBI) Valiollah Seif and the board of directors of the five Iranian banks.
The Beijing-based CITIC Group Corporation, formerly the China International Trust and Investment Corporation, is a state-owned investment company established in 1979.
It now owns 44 subsidiaries, including China CITIC Bank, CITIC Holding, CITIC Trust Co. and CITIC Merchant Co. Ltd in China, Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
The agreement comes against the backdrop of a new wave of interest in ties with Iran after Tehran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 reached a conclusion over the text of a comprehensive 159-page deal on Tehran's nuclear program and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
The comprehensive nuclear deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), terminated all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran.
