The contracts were signed in the Austrian capital of Vienna by an Iranian banking delegation which included representatives of 14 domestic banks headed by Mohammad Khazaei, the president of the Organization for Investment Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran. Deputy Head of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) for Foreign Exchange Affairs Ahmad Araqchi was also a member of the delegation.

The first major finance deal worth €1 billion was signed on Thursday between Austria’s Oberbank and a dozen Iranian banks. The Austrian bank thus became one of the first European financial institutions to break the ice in providing loans for Iranian projects following the removal of Western sanctions in early 2016.

Oberbank, Austria’s seventh-biggest bank, with a balance sheet of roughly €20 billion ($24 billion), signed the deal with 14 Iranian banks at its headquarters in Linz.

President of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran Mohammad Khazaei (2nd L) and Oberbank’s Chief Executive Franz Gasselsberger (2nd R) attend a press conference following the signing of a major finance deal between 14 Iranian banks and the Austrian bank in Vienna on September 21, 2017.

The move was groundbreaking particularly given that many banks — mainly those from Europe — are still standing away from Iran’s funding prospects over fears that they may fall afoul of remaining US sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Officials in Tehran are hoping that this would set the stage for similar moves by other European banks in the near future.

The Iranian signatories included veteran private banks such as Parsian Bank, Saman Bank, Eqtesad Novin Bank, Bank Parargad, Karafarin Bank and the newly established Middle East Bank. Others were former state banks that were privatized over the past few years such as Bank Melli Iran, Bank Mellat, Bank Sepah, Tejarat Bank, Bank of Industry and Mine, Export Development Bank of Iran, Refah Bank and Keshavarzi Bank.

The agreement which envisages a funding ceiling of €1 billion covers projects by Austrian companies in Iran’s production and development projects lasting more than two years.

Speaking on the sidelines of the signing ceremony, Oberbank’s Chief Executive Franz Gasselsberger said, “Today was a great day in the two countries’ relations as this was the first finance deal between a European bank and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although the negotiations on the deal took long for several months, the outcome was quite favorable and satisfying for both sides.”

He added the contract will prepare the ground for Austrian companies and industries in different sectors, particularly health and infrastructure, to invest in Iranian projects and export products and modern technologies to the Middle Eastern state.

“In case on some day in the future, we look back at this day, we will realize that this contract has served as a turning point for the two sides to deepen their relations.”

Gasselsberger said Iran’s economy, in addition to those in Austria and other European countries, is extremely attractive for the entire world as the Middle Eastern state has a hardworking and smart young generation that can create great opportunities for their own country and other nations.

“There must be a win-win situation for Iran and international companies. Nevertheless, we should not forget about political aspects.”

Earlier in September, Gasselsberger told Reuters that the agreement covered projects by Austrian companies in areas that were previously under sanctions.

“We have very concrete projects in the fields of infrastructure, rail, health, hospital construction, factory building, photovoltaics, hydro power,” he had stressed.

Export credit guarantees covering 99 percent of a project’s volume will be provided by the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank, the main Austrian body that issues them, Reuters added.

“The sticking point was obtaining an additional guarantee from the Iran,” Gasselsberger said. “We negotiated with the Iranian central bank but the guarantee is evidently coming from the Iranian Finance Ministry.”

President of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran Mohammad Khazaei (C) at the signing ceremony of a finance deal worth €500 million with representatives (R) of Denmark’s Danske Bank in Vienna on September 21, 2017.

Deal with Denmark’s Danske

The other finance contract, very similar to the one with the Austrian bank, was also signed on Thursday, between the Iranian team and Denmark’s Danske Bank.

The deal is worth €500 million and sees 10 Iranian banks on the receiving end. Following the contract the Danish bank became the second European lender to ink such an agreement with Iran.

The Iranian signatories to the agreement were Saman Bank, Bank Mellat, Tejarat Bank, Bank Melli Iran, Bank of Industry and Mine, Bank Sepah, Bank Pasargad, Eqtesad Novin Bank, Keshavarzi Bank, and Parsian Bank.

They will act as the agent banks, providing civil projects in Iran with the Danish fund, according to an announcement by the website of the Central Bank of Iran.

Danske Bank, founded in 1871 and headquartered in Copenhagen, is the largest bank in Denmark and a major retail bank in the northern European region with over five million retail customers. It was number 454 on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2011.

MoU on infrastructural projects

In addition, the Iranian delegation also signed an MoU late on Thursday with the EKF Bank of Denmark to finance infrastructural projects in Iran.

The memo will make it possible to finance Iranian projects in various sectors later.

The deals with Oberbank and Danske came on the heels of a similar move between China’s CITIC Group and a consortium of Iranian banks to provide loans worth a collective of $10 billion for the country’s infrastructure projects.

Iran had also in late August secured an €8-billion credit line from South Korea’s Eximbank — what was seen as the country’s biggest loan deal since the removal of sanctions against it in early 2016.

Accordingly, officials in Seoul said the deal would finance projects in Iran by companies from South Korea.

The post Iran signs deals with Danish, Austrian banks appeared first on IRAN This Way.

Deputy Head of NIOC for Development and Engineering Affairs Gholamreza Manouchehri said “a list recently published by National Iranian Oil Company was relevant to applicants from Spain, Germany, Italy, Austria, Japan, China and South Korea which had been qualified in Pre-Qualified Iran’s Oil and Gas Upstream Projects Tender Round.”

“Names of Lukoil and Gazprom from Russia were on the list,” highlighted the official asserting that a second list of qualified foreign companies will be soon released.

Manouchehri, while estimating that Russian firms, whose name were among qualified candidates, will be present in the second, underlined that NIOC has inked Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Russia’s Zarubezhneft and Tatneft both of whom were absent in the first published list.

“NIOC must have approved of all firms with which a cooperation agreement has been inked,” noted the official.

He further maintained that claims on disqualification of Russian firms reiterated that Iran welcomed cooperation with credible Russian parties who held new technologies.

National Iranian Oil Company has so far sealed MoUs with seven Russian oil giants for development projects or boosting recovery factor in various oil and gas fields.

Accordingly, research and development MoUs have been signed with Russian firms like Lukoil, Tatneft, Zarubezhneft and Gazprom for expansion of seven Iranian oilfields including Mansouri, Ab Teimour, Aban, West Paydar, Dehloran, Cheshmeh Khoshk and Chenguleh.

Accordingly, Russian firms enjoy the highest rate of cooperation in upstream sector of Iran’s oil and gas industry as compared with Asian or European companies.

Nevertheless, names of Russneft, Tatneft and Zarubezhneft were missing on the recently-published list by NIOC giving rise to hypotheses that the three Russian oil giants had been disqualified.

The post Iran release 2nd list of qualified oil investors appeared first on IRAN This Way.

The meeting was also attended by representatives from National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC), Iran’s National Petrochemical Company (NPC), and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), as well as Iranian petroleum Ministry and Iran’s Research Institute of Petroleum Industry.

The Austrian representatives said they are eager to cooperate with Iran in renewable energy sector and offer training services in this field. OMV representative also announced his company’s readiness for development of Band-e-Karkheh oil field in Iran’s southwestern province of Khuzestan.

In the meeting aimed at investigating the two countries’ energy cooperation roadmap, the sides discussed cooperation in energy saving, exploration and development, research and training projects, as well as environmental issues and gas exports to Europe in addition to making investment in oil and gas projects.

Jochen Penker, the director of European and international energy policy at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy, is heading the Austrian delegation in its three-day visit to Iran.

Austrian Ambassador to Tehran Friedrich Stift, who was also present in the joint energy committee meeting, said his country supports expansion of Tehran-Vienna.

The post Austrian companies participating in Iran’s oil projects+Photo appeared first on IRAN This Way.

Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger, Austrian Director General for Legal and Consular Affairs and Ali Chegini of Iran’s Foreign Ministry met each other along with their accompanying delegations from different organizations, according to the latest announcement of Iranian Foreign Ministry’s Department of Media-wise Diplomacy on Tuesday.

The ways to ease popular interactions of both nations and develop consular ties were examined by the delegations of the both countries at the meeting and the two sides underlined the urge for bolstering strategies which will facilitate and develop all-out relations in areas of tourism, trade, economy, police cooperation, and peoples’ interactions.

Coordination of efforts to prevent illegal immigration was another area of bilateral talks.

The two officials, Mr. Chegini, and his Austrian counterpart, Ms. Tichy-Fisslberger signed, at the end of the meeting, the document of the decisions agreed upon for deepening of bilateral consular ties.

The second meeting of the joint consular sessions of Iran and Austria was held on Sunday and Monday in Tehran.

The post Austria develops consular relations with Iran appeared first on IRAN This Way.

Representatives of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy met with Sirous Vatankhah, Secretary General of Vice Presidency for Science and Technology Renewable Energy Technology Council.

During the meeting, attended by Head of Foreign Economic Projects and Technology Exports Office of Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy of Austria, master of foreign economic policy and the integration of Europe of Federal Ministry for Science, Research and Economics and Austrian politico-economic attaché, necessary transactions were established to expand scientific cooperation between Iran and Austria.

Accordingly, pursuant to the agreements made during Vatankhah’s trip to Austria and executive programs of technological cooperation between the two countries, the two sides decided to, while exchanging a report on the progress made in the process of cooperation, put on the agenda the annual program of holding joint workshops in renewable energies fields, cooperation in transferring the technology of the incineration system and the presence of Austrian firms in Iran’s international conference on renewable energies.

The post Iran and Austria expanding coop. on renewable energy appeared first on IRAN This Way.

The announcement by Austrian Finance Minister Hans Jörg Schelling came during a meeting with CBI Governor Valiollah Seif in Vienna, Mehr News Agency reported.

“In the meeting, it was announced that OeKB’s insurance cover for exports to Iran has increased to 1 billion euros from 280 million euros,” reported the news agency quoting a CBI statement.

Schelling also said his country is interested in “completing banking relationship” with Iran and taking measures to remove obstacles, besides forging brokerage ties with Iranian banks, it added.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) welcomes Austrian President Heinz Fischer during a visit to Tehran in September 2015.

Banking ties

The governors of the two nations’ central banks, Ewald Nowotny and Seif, met on Tuesday, according to sources, who asked not to be identified because the talks are private, Bloomberg reported.

Top three Austrian banks: Erste Group Bank AG, UniCredit Bank Austria AG and Raiffeisen Bank International AG are among the participants, the sources said.

Raiffeisen has been looking into the option of reopening its office in the country, Chief Executive Officer Karl Sevelda said in January.

Austrian and Iranian bankers met in Vienna on Wednesday to discuss the resumption of trade financing, people familiar with the discussion said.

Austrian companies became the first Western firms to put down concrete stakes in the Islamic Republic when Tehran reached a nuclear accord, signing a number of agreements with Iranian partners in September 2015.

Raiffeisen Bank and Erste Bank from Austria along with banks from Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Turkey and Belgium have set up shop in Iran, handling transactions with the energy-rich country while major banks have stayed away, Press TV said./ IRAN-Daily

The post Austrian export credit agency raises Iran export financing to one billion euros appeared first on IRAN This Way.

“My Austrian counterpart paid a visit to Tehran in last year which led to signing a general agreement and the document signed today is an executive agreement for Joint Action Plan according to that agreement,” said Masoumeh Ebtekar, Iran’s Vice President and the Head of Iran’s Environment Protection Department, on Tuesday, after signing a document with Andrä Rupprechter, the Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment, and Water Management in Vienna.

The agreement is intended to map the bilateral cooperation of Iran and Austria on areas of IT tech and research on environment field, maritime environment, human environment, climate change, Paris climate agreement and global warming.

The Austrian side for his part hailed the agreement signed and hoped for realization of the articles agreed upon like construction of a waste recycle factory in Iran by Austrians.

The post Austria, Iran sign environment coop. MoU appeared first on IRAN This Way.

The post Pres. Rouhani receives Austrian counterpart appeared first on IRAN This Way.