To reach a trade volume of $30 million by the end of 2017, Iran and Turkey started a joint committee on banking relations.

The first meeting of Iran-Turkey joint committee on banking relations was held on Wednesday in Tehran, announced the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a communiqué on Thursday.

Hassan Yaghoubi, Director of International Relations Department at the Iranian Central Bank's International Affairs Office headed the Iranian side of the meeting and Mehmet Taşkin, the Deputy Executive Director at Central Bank of Turkey was the top figure of the Turks in the meeting.

During the meeting, the two delegations discussed the ways to remove obstacles ahead of the banking relations of the two countries, the use of local currency for trade, connection of the switch cards of the two countries, and continuation of the bilateral talks in the next three months.

The agreements reached in talks between the two sides was signed by the two sides in the form of a banking Memorandum of Understanding.

The signed MoU is in line with the terms of cooperation agreed by the presidents of the wo countries who have set the goal to reach a trade volume of more than $30 million by the end of 2017.

The next meeting of the committee is set to be held in Turkey in late February.

 An NIOC official announced that the existing oil export contract with Turkey’s largest refinery has been extended.

Executive Director for International Affairs at National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Seyyed Mohsen Ghamsari discussed the latest status of crude oil sales to Turkey in the post-sanction era saying “oil export deal with Tüpraş, Turkey’s largest refiner, has become extended.”

The official said the volume of oil exports to Turkey remains equal to that of the year 2015 asserting “negotiations have kicked off with the neighboring country over increasing the sales figure.”

Ghamsari emphasized that oil sales to Turkey might experience fluctuations for certain periods of time though the average amount remains constant in the long run; “in other words, each company might vary its consumption or production under different circumstances.”

“The average amount of crude exports to Turkey remains at about 100 thousand barrels per day,” underlined the official stressing “Turkish Petroleum Refineries Corporation, known as TÜPRAŞ, is capable of purchasing oil from various countries.”

NIOC executive director for international affairs recalled that the possibility exists for Turkey to buy crude oil from Iraq, Libya, Saudi Arabia as well as other countries; “nevertheless, the amount of cooperation between Iran and Turkey over oil sales remains at a satisfactory level.”

In 2015, Turkey imported a total of more than one million barrels of crude oil and other oil products per day.

The amount of Iraq’s crude sales to Turkey became twofold in 2015 to reach a total of 230 thousand barrels per day offering Iraq 43 per cent of Turkey’s oil market.

Iran managed to export a daily amount of 110 thousand oil barrels to Turkey in the previous year gaining a share of 22 per cent in the neighboring country’s market.

Countries like Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan mark other large exporters of crude oil to Turkey.

Iran and Iraq have always had rivalry over development of joint fields and the removal of sanctions has triggered a fresh round of competitiveness between the two OPEC-member countries.

Oil Minister of Iran Bijan Namdar Zanganeh has reported on final talks with Turkey’s refineries over trebling the amount of oil exports in which case Iran’s crude sales to Turkey will increase from the current 100 thousand barrels to a total of 300 thousand barrels per day.

Turkey aims to triple trade with Iran to $30 billion as quickly as possible after the lifting of economic sanctions made banking transactions with the country easier, Turkish Customs and Trade Minister Bulent Tufenkci said in an interview.
The United States and Europe lifted sanctions on Tehran in January under the deal that limited Iran’s nuclear program. But some restrictions remain, slowing Iranian hopes to reintegrate with world markets.
“Banking and financial transactions have become easier (for Turkey) after the sanctions on Iran were softened, already boosting our business with Iran,” Tufenkci told Reuters in an interview in Ankara.
Trade volume between Iran and Turkey rose to $21.9 billion in 2012, then fell below $10 billion in 2015 with the effects of the sanctions.
The Turkish and Iranian central banks have reopened their connection on the SWIFT global transaction network, an Iranian economy official said earlier this month, in a sign of normalizing banking ties.
Tufenkci also said Turkey’s targets of increasing its exports to $155.5 billion this year, from $144 billion in 2015, and of reaching 4.5% economic growth were achievable.
“It was targeting growth of above 5% in 2017,” he said.
Tufenkci voiced optimism that relations with Russia, which has taken retaliatory economic measures against Turkey after the Turkish military shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border last year, would get back on track soon.
The creation of a “green corridor” between Russia and Iran for exporting Iranian agricultural products to the neighboring country is primarily aimed at substituting sanctioned Turkish products, Russian Deputy Agriculture Minister Sergei Levin said in April.
“After the adoption by the government of Russia of sanctions on the import of agricultural products from the Republic of Turkey, the country’s [Russia’s] Ministry of Agriculture is actively working on the replacement of these products, first of all, by goods from Iran. It is this, in the first place, that the order to create a ‘green corridor’ is linked to,” Levin was quoted as saying by the press service of Russia’s North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan.
The corridor will become operational “at full strength” by the end of 2016, he added.

 Turkey to Establish Industrial Park in Iran
Tehran and Ankara signed a memorandum of understanding late Monday, based on which Turkey is to build an industrial park featuring 140 production units in Iran.
“The initial capital required for the project is estimated at $10 billion. About 85% of the workforce in this industrial park will be Iranian,” said Mohsen Jalalpour, the head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mining and Agriculture, in a meeting with Erdal Bahcivan, chairman of Istanbul Chamber of Industries in Tehran.
Deputy minister of industries, mining and trade, Ali Yazdani, who was also present at the meeting, said a Turkish delegation comprising representatives of industrial units will pay a visit to Iran in September to decide on the location of this industrial park, IRNA reported.
Earlier in April, Yazdani, who also chairs state-run Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization, visited Bashkent Industrial Town in Ankara at the head of a delegation of the ministry officials and heads of Iranian industrial parks. He met with Turkish deputy minister of science, industry and technology, Ramazan Yildirim.
The two sides discussed two locations for the joint investment: one in East Azarbaijan Province’s capital city of Tabriz and the other in Urmia, the provincial capital of West Azarbaijan Province.
According to Yazdani, Turkey is planning to select two of its industrial towns for joint investment with Iran.
As discussed by the Turkish and Iranian officials, the industrial parks will be used for the production of apparel, leather, gold and jewelry, auto parts and decorative stones.
Meanwhile, Iran is also in talks with China to establish another industrial park in Bam Special Economic Zone in Kerman Province for the production of auto parts.
Industrial towns or parks may contain oil refineries, ports, warehouses, distribution centers, chemical plants, plastic manufacturers, airports, food and beverage producers and steel manufacturers, to name a few.
Some industrial parks offer incentives for businesses to locate there, such as tax exemptions.

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 Turkish President has sent message of felicitation to congratulate his counterpart as well as the Iranian nation on Nowruz.

The President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a congratulatory message on Monday to his Iranian counterpart President Hassan Rouhani to felicitate the new Iranian year expressing hope that Nowruz will carry message of peace and tranquility to the region and world.

“On behalf of the Turkish nations, I would like to sincerely extend felicitations to the neighboring and friendly nation of Iran,” said the Turkish president in his new year message.

The official maintained that “as every year, we celebrate Nowruz with hilarity as a beautiful symbol of our common customs which transfer friendship, brotherhood, solidarity and spirit of cooperation between our countries from the past to the future.”

He further expressed hope that the occasion will bring calmness, prosperity, peace, and stability not only for the countries in the region but also for the entire world.

At the end of his message, Erdoğan wished good health, happiness and success for President Rouhani as well as well-being for the people of Iran.