Bank Mellat is the first state-owned bank to come under the privatization plan.

Managing director of Privatization Organization disclosed that the stocks of the first state-run bank would be offered in the bourse within two weeks.
Gholamreza Heidari Kord-Zangeneh told MNA that about five percent of the shares of Bank Mellat would be floated.
He explained that steps are underway to present the shares of Bank Mellat and Bank Tejarat in the bourse. The official elaborated that the Bourse Organization has asked Bank Mellat to give some information and data for making its shares available in the stock market. Currently, the bank is drawing up the data, he added.
In related news, the managing director of Bank Mellat, Iran’s third largest state-owned bank, told reporters on Monday that Iran would in the following months float shares of Bank Mellat on the stock market, making it the first state-owned bank to come under the privatization plan with the aim of limiting state ownership.
“We will probably start by quoting five percent of the bank’s shares by the end of the current year (March 2008) to evaluate the price of shares,“ Ali Divandari added.
The privatization drive envisages selling off 80 percent of state-owned stakes in companies in the banking, media, transportation and mineral sectors.
The base price of the shares, which are also open for purchase by foreign investors, will be decided by the Privatization Organization. They will be floated on the Tehran stock exchange.
“We have held talks with foreign investors from Middle East and Europe who have voiced readiness to buy the shares,“ Divandari said, without identifying them.
The sale of 80 percent of the bank’s shares under the privatization plan would take place over a period of three to four years, said an official, who asked not to be named.
The privatization drive is in line with Article 44 of Iran’s Constitution which envisages a reduction in state involvement in the economy.

President Pervez Musharraf on Monday said Pakistan will continue talks to import gas from Iran even if India does not agree to the terms of the Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline project.
Speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a power plant at Bhiki near Sheikhupura in Punjab province of Pakistan, Musharraf said that Pakistan will continue negotiations to import gas from Iran ’even if India does not agree to the terms of the project’, Press Trust of India reported.
“We have to make a short-term strategy at the earliest as power demand will double in the next four years,“ he remarked.
Pakistan and Iran are holding their final round of technical talks on the long-awaited gas project in Islamabad this week to review a draft gas purchase agreement. The two-day talks, started on December 11, are underway to fine tune the draft agreement which was drawn up during talks between the two sides in Tehran last month.
An Iranian delegation, headed by the Oil Ministry’s special envoy for the multi-billion-dollar pipeline talks, Hojjatollah Ghanimifard, is negotiating with the Pakistani team.
The agreement on the multi-billion-dollar pipeline, set to transfer Iranian gas to Pakistan, should be ready within a month for signing by the two heads of states.
Indian government sources have said the country’s participation in the project hinged on the transit fee charged by Pakistan for the Iranian gas.
Iran, India and Pakistan had held tripartite negotiations over the pipeline project, known as ’The Peace Pipeline’, until recently New Delhi’s vacillation caused Tehran and Islamabad to continue talks bilaterally.
The contract, once signed, will pave the way for export of up to 30 million cubic meters of gas per day from Iran to Pakistan beginning in 2013.

Studies on Iran’s first coal-fired power plant are now complete, managing director of the Power Development Company of Iran announced on Tuesday.
Referring to coal reserves discovered in the eastern city of Tabas, Yazd province, Mohammad Behzad said, “With the discovery of 120 million tons of coal and abundant water resources, one can be hopeful about the construction of the first coal-fired power plant in that region.“
He told MNA, “Despite the availability of resources for the plant at the present time, it is necessary to make sure that resources will continue to be available for the estimated plant life of 40 years.“
Iran added 2,080-megawatt plant to the country’s electricity grid two years ago and a 3,234-megawatt plant just last year.
The planned capacity of the coal-fired plant is 650 megawatts and six trillion rials have been set aside for constructing the plant.
Mostafa Ali Rabbani, deputy head of the Power Development Company of Iran, said, “We have carried out exploratory studies of the coal reserves in three phases. So far, preliminary results from a depth of up to 150 meters indicate the existence of 120 million tons of coal.“
Although studies so far conducted point to the existence of sufficient water resources in the region for the operation of the plant, a number of additional wells are being dug for a greater confidence factor, Rabbani added.

International Maritime Organization (IMO) in its 25th assembly in London UK commended the Islamic Republic for its efforts in marine rescue operations.
Public Relations office of Port and Shipping Organization (PSO) in a fax to Iran Daily stated that the IMO Secretary General Efthimios Mitropoulos praised Iran for the marine rescue operations.
“An account of Iran’s efforts in implementing its international and national commitments by rescuing 29 crew members aboard two foreign vessels as well as its fight against sea pollution, was read out at the General Assembly, commended and registered as an official document,“ said PSO representative to the IMO, Ali-Akbar Marzban.
At the gathering, representatives from over 15 nations around the world including Italy, Panama, Pakistan and Tanzania thanked the Iranian Ports and Shipping Organization for its positive, committed activities in marine search and rescue operations.
Earlier, Iranian sailors of a commercial ship rescued 15 sailors from a North Korean flagged ship in the Oman Sea on August 5.
The commander of Iranian Sahar ship received an SOS message from North Korea’s Darlin ship after water leaked into its engine room.
During the rescue operation, 15 sailors, including ten Syrian and five Indian sailors, were rescued and handed over to Oman’s officials, the organization said.