TEHRAN – Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate for developing non-oil exports and managing imports, the TPO portal reported on Saturday.

The MOU was signed in a ceremony attended by CBI Governor Ali Saleh-Abadi, industry, Mining and Trade Minister Reza Fatemi Amin, and TPO Head Alireza Peyman-Pak.

Speaking at the ceremony, Peyman-Pak noted that paving the way for the development of non-oil exports as well as the coordination of trade and forex policies require the cooperation of all authorities and agencies.

“It is necessary to provide conditions to increase the export of goods with higher value-added and also knowledge-based goods to improve the country's trade balance. It is also necessary to manage the imports of raw materials, equipment, and machinery needed by production sectors and also to supply intermediate goods for export-oriented production,” he said.

Peyman-Pak further underlined the important role of CBI in defining proper foreign exchange policies and called for conducting expert discussions between different departments of Industry Ministry and the central bank.

Based on the MOU, the two sides agreed on the establishment of a joint working group with the presence of Industry Ministry and CBI representatives at the highest level with the aim of facilitating and accelerating foreign trade, and maximizing the coordination of foreign exchange and trade policies.

TPO, as the secretariat of the mentioned working group, will take the necessary measures to monitor related issues and ultimately make decisions accordingly.

“In this working group, issues such as new mechanisms for facilitating and accelerating the fulfillment of foreign exchange obligations, development of new payment methods, issuance of export guarantees, facilitation of barter trade processes, etc. are raised and expert decisions will be made,” Peyman-Pak said.

EF/MA

Photo: TPO Head Alireza Peyman-Pak