Iran, Russia Trade Ties on Upswing, Mull Joint Investments in Capital Market

Monday, 4 June 2018

Deputy Trade Representative of the Russian Federation to Iran, Mr. Vladislav Prepelkin, paid a visit to Central Securities Depository of Iran upon an official invitation by CSDI Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Hossein Fahimi on Wednesday to discuss, among other things, ways of developing bilateral cooperation in commercial, economic and investment.

A wide range of issues were raised at the meeting including progress of developing the banking infrastructure for bilateral cooperation, opening of correspondent accounts as well as initiatives to pave the ground for the two nations’ market players to get more acquainted with all spheres of their activities, facilitate exploration of unused economic potential and review grounds to boost trade cooperation.

Speaking at the meeting, the CSDI chief said that “Collaboration with Russia is important for us with regard to all new and existing instruments, allowing us to ensure a high level of reliability and technological efficiency.”

Later in his remarks, Mr. Fahimi termed capital markets as key components of the financial system and said CSDI was keen to foster relations with Russian key market players whose cooperation will be critical to the wellbeing of both sides’ capital markets.

For his part, the Russian deputy trade representative expressed satisfaction with the progress achieved in the relative areas and said, “Iran and Russia have improved bilateral trade and are also working to step up their efforts to create platform to connect the two countries’ capital markets.”

The Russian side further agreed to cooperate with CSDI on several directions – primarily the development of correspondent relations between the credit institutions of Russia and Iran.

Central Securities Depositary of Iran has intensified efforts to connect the Iranian and Russian capital markets following a landmark Memorandum of Understanding CSDI sealed with National Settlement Depository of Russia earlier in April, 2018.

Establishing a stock market corridor for investors in the two countries to access each other’s capital markets were also among the main issues to be worked upon under this cooperation agreement.