Financial Tribune - Wednesday, July 26, 2017
China signed a contract with Iran to finance the electrification of a 926-km railroad from Tehran to the eastern city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province with a $1.5 billion loan. As per the agreement signed between the two sides in Tehran on Tuesday, the guarantee for the loan, which is to be granted by Exim Bank of China, will be provided by Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine, IRIB News reported. Ali Ashraf Afkhami, CEO of the Iranian bank, was quoted as saying by IRNA that the contract was signed after 16 months of negotiations. The electrification project will be carried out by China National Machinery Import and Export Corporation, otherwise known as CMC. A subsidiary of China General Technology Group, CMC is an international engineering contractor in transportation infrastructure, industrial facilities and power plants. In 2014, the company constructed the Ankara-Istanbul high-speed railroad, together with China Railway Construction Corporation Limited and Turkish companies. Iran's deputy minister of roads and urban development, Asghar Fakhrieh-Kashan, earlier said the project was worth €2.2 billion ($2.56 billion) and that two-thirds of the cost would be financed by the Chinese government at a very low interest rate.
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