China's CITIC Trust has signed a contract with Iran to provide a 10 billion US dollars credit line for Iranian banks, president of Iran's central bank said Saturday.
The contract was signed in Beijing between the CITIC Group and a delegation of Iranian banks led by Valiollah Seif, Iran's central bank.
Five Iranian banks, Export Development Bank of Iran, Bank of Industry and Mine, Parsian Bank, Bank Pasargad Iran and Refah Bank are designated to act as the agent banks for using the Chinese finance on water management, energy, environment and transport projects in Iran, newspaper Iranian News Daily reported Saturday.
In addition to the credit line, China Development Bank signed preliminary deals with Iran worth 15 billion US dollars for other infrastructure and production projects, Seif announced.
The contracts reflect "a strong will for continuation of cooperation between the two countries," Seif said.
The credit line will use euros and yuan, a move believed able to help bypass US sanctions that have continued despite the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers in 2015.
China was a signatory to the deal that lifted sanctions in exchange for curbs to Iran's nuclear program.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Iran in January 2016 after the deal came into effect, vowing to boost bilateral trade to 600 billion US dollars within a decade.
Although trade was just 31 billion US dollars in 2016, it has jumped more than 30 percent in the first six months of 2017.
Source(s): AFP