President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at the inauguration of Mehr Qarz Al-Hassaneh Bank on Thursday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday fulfilled one of his election campaign pledges by inaugurating a new bank to provide loans to the general public.
’Mehr Qarz Al-Hassaneh Bank’ will provide loans to enable the people to meet urgent needs, reported IRNA.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, the president complained about the complicated process for receiving loans from commercial banks saying that the wealthy have easy access to bank loans which are inaccessible to the common man. “Unfortunately banks have been deluded in carrying out their professional business,“ he noted.
Addressing the same gathering, Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Davoud Danesh-Jafari put the ceiling of Mehr Bank’s loan at 100 million rials which will be granted for employment, marriage, education, medical treatment, house repairing and renovation. He pointed out that the bank would take four percent as charges.
The minister said that the bank plans to render various services and even set up international branches.
He underlined that the ministry will consider transferring five percent of the bank’s 15-trillion-rial capital to profit-making enterprises to gain revenues for the bank.
Danesh-Jafari explained that all states and private-run banks such as Parsian, Eqtesad-e Novin, Sarmayeh and Saman are shareholders in Mehr Gharz Al-Hassaneh Bank. About 4.5 trillion rials of the bank capital is cash, he elaborated.
Commercial banks have directly invested in non-productive sectors particularly in real estate and constructions rather than using cash to create jobs.
Mehr Qarz Al-Hassaneh Bank branches in Tehran and the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Ardebil, Isfahan, Ilam, Fars, Hamedan, Kurdestan and Semnan opened on Thursday with a video-link message from the president. The bank plans to set up 2,000 branches nationwide.

Iran’s ambassador to India on Thursday described economic cooperation between the two nations as extensive, noting that the two countries are studying the implementation of projects worth $40 billion.
Speaking at a seminar on ’Investment Opportunities in Andhra Pradesh and Iran’ in Hyderabad, southern India, Mehdi Nabizadeh cited Iran-India-Pakistan gas pipeline project, LNG contract, construction of an oil refinery and two steel mills in Iran as some of the projects undertaken by the two sides, IRNA reported.
Noting that commercial ties have improved in recent years, he put the value of bilateral trade at $9.3 billion in the year to March 2008. Of this amount, he said, about $7.8 billion pertained to Iran’s exports to India.
Referring to Iran’s progress in scientific and industrial fields such as biotechnology, nanotechnology, electronics and auto manufacturing, he said that these fields provide potential investment opportunities in Iran.
Also, a senior official of Andhra Pradesh Chamber of Commerce said that Iran has huge energy reserves and India is urgently in need of energy resources for its economic growth. This has made the two nations partners, Prasad Agarwal pointed out.
He also referred to cooperation among Indo-Iranian companies in third countries, and added that companies from the two nations could take advantage of the economic opportunities in Central Asia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Speaking at the same gathering, Iran’s Consul General in Hyderabad Hossein Soroush said that about 140 Iranian and Indian companies have cooperated in different fields in the past three years.
He explained that Iran’s trade with southern Indian states has increased to $760 million from $120 million during this period. He elaborated that exports from the three southern Indian states to Iran reached $423 million, while Iran’s exports to these states rose to $337 million during the period.
Steps such as easing visa procedure for businessmen, launching commercial fairs in Hyderabad and Mashhad and dispatching media persons to the two countries could help merchants become familiar with each other’s economic potentials and facilities.

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) has announced that it is in preliminary talks with Iran to import natural gas to the United Arab Emirates.
Chief Executive Officer of TAQA Peter Barker-Homek told reporters that investment in the Iranian energy industry will also be up for discussion, PressTV reported.
TAQA is considering investing in Iran’s liquefied natural gas and pipelines, as well as electricity, Barker-Homek said in Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi National Energy Company was established in June 2005 as a global energy investment company with strategic and financial investments in different sectors including oil, gas and power.
Meanwhile, Persian Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (PGPCA) held its second annual meeting in Dubai during December 11-13 to discuss the latest developments in the Middle East petrochemical and chemical sectors.
At the meeting, regional experts discussed key industry insights, experiences and global economic outlook for the chemical industry.
The ICIS website recently named Gholamhossein Nejabat, Iran’s deputy oil minister for petrochemical affairs and the head of the National Petrochemical Company (NPC) as one of the top PGPCA and Middle East industrial figures.
Deputy Chairman of Iran Petrochemical Commercial Company (IPCC) Mohammad Ali Zardbani also appears on the ICIS list. Zardbani, who assumed office at the end of September, has played an important role as the IPCC foreign commercial director since 2001.
The Persian Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association, which was founded in March 2006, is one of the most influential associations in the Middle East petrochemicals and chemicals industry.

During a recent visit of Turkmen President to Iran, the two countries signed two new protocols in the water sector, said deputy energy minister for water affairs, Rasoul Zargar.
He said that Turkmenistan owes $170 million to Iran for the construction of Friendship Dam but the country has not paid the debt yet.
The official noted that the dam was inaugurated in 2004 and has been inundated for the first time to 900 million cubic meters of water in the year to March.
He referred to the construction of a diversion canal from the dam in Shirtapeh at a cost of $8 billion as one of the protocols signed between the two countries.
Iran, he added, can exploit its share of water which is 450 million cubic meters, but it is not steady since any flooding may lead to sedimentation.
“With the construction of a diversion canal, Iran’s exploitation of water from Friendship Dam would become stable,“ he concluded.
Iran and Turkmenistan have already carried out a number of major infrastructure projects, including the $139 million Korpedzhe-Kordkui gas pipeline and the $167 million Dostluk (Friendship) dam. Trade turnover between Iran and Turkmenistan was $900 million in 2005.

Iran ranks first among exporters of tuberose and gladiolus in the world.

Iran ranks first among exporters of tuberose and gladiolus in the world, a member of the Board of Directors of State Flower Growers’ Association said on Tuesday.
In an interview with Fars news agency, Behrouz Soltan Mohammadi stated that currently over six million stalks of flowers are distributed in Tehran markets daily.
Referring to the export of Iranian tuberose and gladiolus, he noted that these flowers have the best quality in the world.
He listed former Soviet states and Persian Gulf littoral countries as the main markets for Iranian flowers. He put global flora exports at $60 billion of which Iran’s share in $4 billion.
According to him, Islamic Republic has high potentials for increasing flower exports by creating proper grounds and using state-of-art technology.
“Almost 1,700 hectares in Tehran are under cultivation of flowers and plants of which 700 hectares are located in Pakdasht, a village 15 km southeast of the capital,“ Soltan Mohammadi noted.
“However, since we are still using traditional cultivation methods, the sector is lagging behind developed countries in the production of flowers and plants,“ he added.
He underlined that currently 38 varieties of flower are produced in the country, of which 12 can be exported.
Soltan Mohammadi urged officials to pay attention to industrial and scientific methods of producing flowers, adding 90 percent of flowers are produced by traditional ways and the rest by the scientific methods.
He also disclosed the setting up of the ornamental flora export terminal in Ahmad Abad-e-Mostofi region in Shahriar, 20 km west of Tehran. “Some 2,500 flower and flora producers are active in Tehran,“ he concluded.
Although Iran is one of the world’s largest producers of ornamental flowers, poor marketing techniques and outdated packaging system have reduced to the country’s share in international flora trade to a minimum.
Standard packaging plays an important role in marketing. Over 200 species of flower and 100 species of wildflower have been identified nationwide.

Healthcare share in gross domestic products is 6.6 percent in Iran while it is above 8 and 12 percent for developing and developed countries respectively.

Lack of realistic perspective on health security has led to chaos in the medication environment of the country, warned rapporteur of Majlis Health and Treatment Commission Noureddin Pirmoazzen.
He referred to the share of healthcare in gross domestic products as one of the three indices considered by World Health Organization for evaluating medication system in various
countries, MNA wrote.
He said that the figure for Iran is 6.6 percent while it is above 8 and 12 percent for developing and developed countries respectively and 16 percent for the US.
The lawmaker said that part of medical expenses which is paid by the people themselves is the second index for the WHO, adding in Iran the figure increased from 54 percent in the beginning of the Fourth Five-Year Economic Development Plan (2005-2010) to the present level of 60 percent.
Pirmoazzen stated that the figure for developing and developed countries is below 30 percent and 15 percent respectively.
The MP said that the per capita spending on healthcare, as the third index, is $400 in Iran, $2,000 in developing nations and between $,3000 to $4,000 in developed countries.
He noted that in view of these figures, Iran ranked between 108 to 113 among 192 WHO member states. “This shows the bitter fact of low level of investment in public health,“ he concluded.
According to the WHO, each year 100 million people slide into poverty due to exorbitant medicare costs. Another 150 million people are forced to spend nearly half their incomes on medical expenses. That is because in many countries people have no access to social health protection--affordable health insurance or government-funded health services.
Social health protection is not only a key tool to make healthcare accessible to all and to rid millions of people from poverty. It is also an investment in health, productivity and development--an investment that is a prerequisite for competitiveness at the international level.

Proposals for implementing the technical and executive aspects of Iran LNG project in the form of joint stock partnership will soon be submitted to the Oil Ministry, announced managing director of Iran LNG Company Ali Kheirandish.
Speaking to Fars news agency, he said that preliminary steps are being taken and the general public and applicants should be given complete and transparent information in this respect.
The official stated that the general policies of the scheme including privileges for the first buyers compared with those who purchase the stocks later, total value of the scheme as well as the amount, price and number of the shares which can be offered should be studied and approved by the Oil Ministry.
Kheirandish noted that further expert studies should be conducted on the scheme since it is the first time that profitable South Pars project are to be ceded in form of joint stock company.
“The scheme would be implemented after obtaining the Oil Ministry approval“, he concluded.
Earlier, deputy oil minister for planning affairs, Akbar Torkan said last week that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has approved the implementation of lucrative South Pars (SP) projects in the form of joint stock partnership.
He added that application forms for the shares of Iran LNG project will be available by next month noting that foreign individuals and companies can also buy the shares.
South Pars stretches over an area of 9,700 sq. kms of which 3,700 sq.kms lie in Iranian waters. South Pars’ Iran sector holds 14 trillion cubic meters of gas and 18 billion barrels of gas condensates. About 50 percent of the country’s gas reserves and eight percent of the world’s proven gas reserves are in South Pars.

Iran’s Parliamentary Friendship Group held talks with Austrian officials of Chamber of Commerce in Vienna on Thursday.
At the meeting, Mohammad-Baqer Bahrami, co-chairman of Iran-Austria Parliamentary Friendship Group, proposed the formation of a joint economic commission with the aim of developing relations between the two countries, IRNA reported.
Austrian official in charge of South and Southeast Asia in Chamber of Commerce Rudolf Thaler expressed his country’s readiness to pursue the proposal.
“Austria is ready to cooperate with Iran particularly in electronic trade, energy sector, dam building, ways of reducing fuel consumption and safeguarding the environment,“ he said.
Iran-Austria Parliamentary Friendship Group has been on a visit to Vienna since Monday.