TEHRAN: Iran and Italy on Sunday signed a bilateral trade insurance agreement which is expected to help facilitate commercial transactions between the two countries, specifically once the US-engineered sanctions against Iran are lifted.
The agreement was signed between the Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) and Italy’s Servizi Assicurativi del Commercio Estero (SACE) in a ceremony held in the Italian city of Florence.
It is expected to provide insurance coverage for traders of the two countries over their mutual import and export plans.
SACE has announced in a press release obtained by Press TV that the document is a technical cooperation agreement which is meant to increase EGFI’s capacity to support the development and competitiveness of Iran’s exporting companies. This, the statement emphasized, will be carried through using the assistance programs designed by SACE.
Under this agreement, SACE will offer EGFI advisory and training services on products, processes, and risk assessment and management, with the objective of transferring to the Iranian agency the instruments and know-how necessary to sustain Iranian companies in developing and implementing growth plans based on exports.
EGFI Managing Director Taher Shah-Hamed told reporters after signing the deal with SACE that European countries are increasingly becoming interested in making investments in Iran thanks to what he described as an improving political and economic environment.
“We have also witnessed that Italy is becoming determined to expand trade ties with Iran,” Shah-Hamed has been quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars news agency.
The SACE says on its website that it operates in 189 countries and offers a wide range of insurance and financial products including export credit, investment protection, financial guarantees, surety bonds and factoring.
It says over the past 10 years, it has provided assistance for the creation and development of export credit agencies and other financial institutions in several emerging markets of the Middle East, North Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia.
