TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), Iranian Association of Internal Audits (IAIA), Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), and Iran’s over-the-counter (OTC) market, known as Iran Fara Bourse (IFB), signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on Tuesday for launching a single-window system to accelerate the process of private companies’ acceptance to the stock market, IRIB reported.

The signing ceremony was attended by Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand, ICCIMA Head Gholam-Hossein Shafeie, Head of Iran's Securities and Exchange Organization (SEO) Hasan Qalibaf, Managing Director of TSE Ali Sahraei and IFB Managing Director Amir Hamouni.

The MOU is aimed at creating a single portal for evaluating, assessing and monitoring the financial and technical situation of private sector companies for approving their entrance into the capital market.

As reported, the term of this memorandum is one year and will be extended if the parties agree.

Speaking in the ceremony, Dejpasand also announced the establishment of the country’s real estate stock exchange in the coming week.

According to the official, the Economy Ministry is finalizing the issue with the SEO and the first meeting in this regard has already been held.

Noting that 12 major sectors are involved in the real estate market, the official added: "Many organizations, such as the Mostazafan Foundation, Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs, Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order Headquarters, Social Security and the Islamic Azad University have announced their readiness to put their properties on this market.”

Iranian government has been encouraging the country’s private sector to join the capital market to retract public investments into the market.

Last week, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyed Ali Khamenei agreed with a plan for offering special tax exemptions and incentives to the companies that are accepted to the stock market in the current Iranian calendar year.

Although the Iranian stock market is a newly developed market and people have only recently gotten acquainted with its activities, this market has been booming in recent years.

In the past Iranian year 1398, the performance of the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE), which is the main stock market of Iran, was unprecedented, as its main index, TEDPIX, which had closed at 178,000 points at the end of the calendar year 1397, climbed to 512,000 points at the end of last year.

Many domestic companies have already offered their shares in the market, while much more are getting ready to join.

EF/MA