TEHRAN (Iran News) Addressing a national event on digital currency on Saturday in Tehran, Hemmati said that Iran is moving towards managing and eliminating the adverse effects of digital currency on the economy and instead using its positive effects.

He cited the advantages and progress of digital currency as the reasons behind the decision.

Digital money is within the scope of the Central Bank of Iran authority, the minister said.

As to cryptocurrencies, he added, it is hope that they would be developed with the aim of growing assets and youth employment, helping to nullify sanctions and aligning Iran’s activities with the global economy.

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During a training workshop for trade with Russia which was held by the TPO for Iranian businessmen, the head of TPO Mr. Alireza Payman-Pak pointed to the statistics regarding Iran’s trade with Russia and said that European countries account for $80b of Russia’s total annual imports that has been affected by the sanctions after the Ukraine war.

He went on to say that it shows Russia is a big market that Iranian traders can make most of this market but unfortunately so far Iran has accounted for $58m out of the total $232b of Russia’s imports.

He then pointed to several meetings between the economic delegations of Iran and Russia and said that the TPO has put on the agenda some factors for promoting trade with Russia, adding that broadening the market is the most important factor and it means both sides should set some mechanisms that they can help Iranian and Russian traders to have proper connection and interaction.

Payman-Pak said that the main issue is that main opportunities and properties of Russian market should be identified and at the same time major distributors of the Russian market should get acquainted with Iranian traders because in the past years, Iranian goods in Russia have been distributed by the third party countries.

He reiterated that Russia’s market is totally different from Iran’s traditional markets like Iraq and entering this market without enough studies will be repulsive and make Iranian traders disappoint.

Payman-Pak reiterated Iran has sent several trade delegations to different republics of Russia and it has not been limited to Moscow and so far the two countries have exchanged 24 trade delegations, and urged bodies like Iran Chamber of Commerce and Iran Chamber of Cooperatives to help to organize traders of the private sector.

He then said the second factor is the presence in the exhibitions in Russia, adding that Russia will host an exhibition on Iran’s capabilities in September and some specialized exhibitions like on auto parts are being planned. He then pointed to using platforms as the third important factor for boosting trade with Russia, adding that if Iran wants to broaden an Iranian platform in Russia it needs considerable investment.

Payman-Pak continued to say that the center for promoting trade with Russia has been activated and the license for the launch of the Iran Trade Center in Russia has been issued and Iran Chamber of Cooperatives is in charge of it, noting the center will help traders to ease their trades and it will act actually as Iran’s trade embassy in Russia.

He then pointed to some good actions taken by both countries in the field of logistics and banking and stated that Iran and Russia have reached some good agreements on using cryptocurrencies in their trade to circumvent the sanctions.

Payman-Pak went on to say that currently 700 items of goods are covered under preferential trade which has been extended for one more year and there is possibility that tariffs of some 80% of goods exchanged between the two countries are zeroed under the free trade.

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Alireza Peyman-Pak made the announcement on his social media on Friday, stating that the mechanism has been finalized in a meeting of the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry and Central Bank of Iran (CBI) joint foreign currency working group.

The Iranian government approved cryptocurrency mining as an industrial activity in 2020, after which numerous companies started mining cryptocurrency across the country thanks to the extremely low-cost electricity.

In January 2020, the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade issued more than 1,000 licenses for cryptocurrency mining units.

Iranian government currently allows cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin to be mined by the mentioned units while requiring them to sell the cryptocurrencies to the CBI.

These cryptocurrencies can be used to pay for imports, thereby reducing the chances of suppliers being punished by the U.S. because of the sanctions imposed on Iran.

However, according to the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade, most cryptocurrency mining farms in Iran operate unofficially, generating cryptocurrency worth $660 million a year, or 4-6 percent of the world’s total of around $11 billion.

Back in July 2021, members of the Iranian parliament proposed a bill that required the government to ban all cryptocurrency payments in Iran while encouraging the mining of other cryptocurrencies as a source of state income.

The proposed legislation called “Supporting Cryptocurrency Mining and Regulation of Domestic Cryptocurrency Trade,” obliged CBI to regulate cryptocurrency transactions at the national level while calling on crypto-mining farms to declare their assets to CBI.

The legislation authorized the Industry Ministry to supervise cryptocurrency mining in the country.

The ministry would license, supervise and support companies mining international cryptocurrencies aiming at raising $500 million in cryptocurrency for the state in the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21, 2022) and increase this by 10 percent a year.

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