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I I r r a a n n E E c c o o n n o o m m y y U U p p d d a a t t e e
Issue 141/2016 – Monday December 26th A local website lambasts minister of Industry for his call to relief Korean company
Minister of Industry, Mine & Trade
Mohammadreza Nematzadeh has intervened in the case of a Korean home appliance company which has recently been slapped with some 3 billion toman in fine for alleged violating customs law, the daily Shargh wrote on Monday. In a letter issued to Massoud Karbasian, head of Iran’s Customs
administration, Nematzadeh expressed hope for an
“immediate” annulment of the fine, and
underscored that the imported components were home appliance parts that were undergoing different processes of assembling in Iran that eventually resulted in final products and hence are not subject to a customs law on importing final (finished) goods. “This company, in line with the policies of the ministry, has already taken steps to complete building washing machine production lines in Iran based on the global modern
technology, and is also going to make new investments and build new production lines to manufacture various types of refrigerators and freezers in Iran,” said Nematzadeh.
However, an unnamed official at the Customs administration has told Fars News that minister of Industry is not in a position to decide about the relief of a home appliance producer that has offended customs regulations. Without mentioning the full name, the official confined himself to disclose the first letter of the Iranian representative of the Korean company, “G”, and explained that the company used to import disassembled parts that together would have made a complete product [t enjoy the difference between import duties of parts and final products].
Tasnim News Agency has sharply taken issue with Nematzadeh’s letter and similarly, one of the
columnists of the daily Kayhan wrote an article and asks in a sarcastic manner: “Is he [Nematzadeh] the Industry minister of Korea? Is he responsible for creating jobs for Koreans? Do national interests have priority over other issues? You judge who a traitor is and who the servant is.”
EIA says Iran’s oil output surged18% in 2016 In the Monthly Energy Review released for
December 2016, the US Energy Information
Administration (EIA) has reported that Iran’s crude oil production in the first nine months of 2016 averaged 3.920 million bpd compared with 3.300 million bpd during the same period in 2015 and 3.219 million bpd in the first nine months of 2014.
The report shows that Iran’s oil output in the first nine months of 2016 has increased by 18% (table below) compared with the similar period in 2015
figures in million bpd oil output y-o-y change first 9 month 2014 3.219 -
first 9 month 2015 3.300 2.5% (↑) first 9 month 2016 3.920 18% (↑)
A Japanese bank will start transactions with Iran in euro
Iran’s ambassador to Japan said during the visit of Minister of Foreign Affairs to Tokyo, the two sides signed two “important” pacts and also one of the Japanese banks agreed to involve in euro financing of Iranian project, the daily Donyay-e Eghtesad wrote on Monday. Reza Nazar-Ahari didn’t explain about the two pacts but about the bank said the Japanese officials said that using euros in
transactions will soon be realized in at least one of the big Japanese banks.
2 Facilitating transit on top of President
Rouhani’s agenda in visiting three former soviet nations
On the third leg of his three-day tour to Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, President Rouhani and his Kyrgyz counterpart Almazbek Atambayev took part in a ceremony on signing five MoUs on ICT cooperation, combating narcotics production &
smuggling, cultural exchange, health cooperation, and cooperation in social & labor sphere. According to the daily Jahan-e Sanat, Rouhani told reporters after the signing ceremony that in their
negotiations, he and the Kyrgyz officials paid “a special” attention to developing economic relations. Elimination of visa requirement, establishing direct flight, and facilitating banking relations were among the issues Rouhani said were raised during their discussion. The Iranian
president also emphasized that Iran supports the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway project that could be extended to Turkmenistan and Iran and thereon to the Oman Sea, Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Rouhani also said Iran is ready to provide Kyrgyzstan with engineering and technical services for building dam, road, railway, power plant and so on.
During the visit of President Rouhani to Kazakhstan on the 2nd leg of his trip, five MoUs were signed between senior Iranian and Kazakh officials in front of the countries’ president. The agreements were signed in the fields of shipping in the Caspian Sea, tourism, developing cooperation between central banks, animal quarantine, and labor & social
security. Rouhani emphasized on developing transit relations, and especially supported the China-to- Persian Gulf and Oman Sea transit route, and also developing customs cooperation through
establishing a single-window system. Elimination of visa requirement was another issue that the Iranian and Kazakh officials discussed during this visit.
Before visiting Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, Rouhani had visited Armenia and the two governments
signed five MoUs. Before leaving Tehran to Yerevan last Wednesday, Rouhani had told reporters that the “Islamic Republic’s principled policy is
establishing close relations with the neighbors which is of extreme importance in terms of economic and national security issues.” Rouhani also said Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are members of the Eurasia Economic Commission with which we have been trying to establish close relations in a quest to boost free trade.
