Iran’s deputy economy minister said, within a 10-billion-dollar contract, China has allocated Lines of Credit (LOCs) to five Iranian banks.

Mohammad Khazaei made the remarks while speaking at the MoU-signing ceremony for a ten-billion-dollar LOC contract between CITIC Group Corporation Ltd. of China and five Iranian banks.

“The deal marks the first major contract signed with China in the era after the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA),” stated the official adding “upon signing this contract, we will be able to quickly finalize its executive procedures in Iran and China.”

Head of the Iranian Investment Organization added “Iran’s cooperation with CITIC Group is divided into three categories one of the main areas of cooperation with the large financial institution being financial analysis and project financing as signed by the parties.”

“CITIC is one of the largest economic groups in the world and taking advantage of its companies to execute major Iranian projects based on mutual agreement remains yet another aspect of cooperation between the two sides. The third area of collaboration between Iran and the CITIC lies in discussion of financial services of the Chinese side in Iran and signing of the agreement will boost ties between financial and economic groups of Iran and China. Given the presence of CITIC on the international level, the group can serve as Iran’s gateway for to the world,” he explained.

An agreement on a $ 10 billion credit line between Iran and China’s CITIC Group was inked in Beijing on Thursday at presence of Governor of Central Bank of Iran Valiollah Seif, Iran’s Ambassador to Beijing Ali Asghar Khaji, Chairman of Iran’s Investment Organization Mohammad Khazaei as well as CITIC Group directors. The meeting, which was held at the Chinese CITIC Center in Beijing, signed a $ 10 billion agreement on credit line of China’s CITIC Group with five Iranian banks.

CITIC GROUP is one of the largest financial institutions in the world, ranked among the top 500 groups. The China Construction Bank, CITIC Bank, Bidou Group, China Film Company and China Post Express Company are among subsidiaries of CITIC Group. / Meher news /

Iran earned their second consecutive win in the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Grand Champions Cup on Wednesday.

The Iranian national volleyball team beat the U.S. 3-2 (20-25, 17-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-21, 15-12) at the Nippon Gaishi Hall.

Milad Ebadipour, who was contained by the U.S. in the first two sets, stepped up on offence and finished with 18 points.

Amir Ghafour and Mohammadjavad Manavinezhad were among the Iranian players vital in comeback, scored 15 and 11 points, respectively.

Matthew Anderson and Taylor Sander made 17 points apiece on a losing effort.

Iran maintained their clean win-record, while the U.S. dropped to 1-1 in the 2017 edition of the World Grand Champions Cup.

Five of Iran’s six wins at the tournament have come in five sets.

Team Melli will play the event’s most decorated team Brazil on Friday.

The competition has brought six teams Iran, Japan, the U.S., France, Italy and Brazil together in Nagoya and Osaka, Japan from 12 to 17 September. / Tehran times /

New cast members including Greg Grunberg and Taylor Cole have joined Ali Atshani’s comedy ‘1st Born’, a US-Iranian co-production.

This movie is the first joint production of Iran and Hollywood whose filming will start in Los Angeles on September 11.

According to previous announcements, Val Kilmer, William Baldwin, Jay Abdo, Robert Knepper and Armin Amiri will also appear in this comedy.

The project centers on a newly married couple, Iranian-born Ben and his American wife Kate, who are living in California. When the couple’s first pregnancy faces complications, both sides of their family must come together – a rather complicated notion as Ben’s father Hamid is an anti-American Iranian politician, while Kate’s father Biden (played by Kilmer) is an American politician with a hardline stance against Iran.

‘1st Born’ is notable for being the first joint feature film co-production between Iran and Hollywood, using a cast and crew from both the US and the Middle East.

The film will be produced by LA Independent Film and Entertainment studio located in Hollywood. The screenplay has been written by Sam Khoze and Tarek Zohdy. / Meher news /

Five Iranian films have won awards in various categories at the Moondance International Film Festival in the city of Boulder, in the northern part of the U.S. State of Colorado.

“Weavers of Imagination” co-directed by Sadeq Jafari and Marzieh Vaziri received one of the two awards in the short documentary film category, the organizers announced last week.

“Niofar” by Hugo Lemant from France won another award in the section.

“Not Yet” by Arian Vazirdaftari was among the eight winners in the short film category.

Three of the eight awards in the animation film section went to “Light Sight” by Seyyed Moslem Tabatabai, “The Orangish Tree” by Amir-Hushang Moein and “The Servant” by Farnush Abedi.

Photo: Farhad Aslani (L) and Pantea Panahiha act in a scene from Arian Vazirdaftari’s short drama “Not Yet”. / Tehran times /

Iran opened the 2017 edition of the FIVB Volleyball Men’s World Grand Champions Cup with a 3-2 win over Italian rivals.

In their first match on the opening day of the sportive event, Iranian volleyball players took up Italian rivals on Tuesday morning in the Japanese city of Nagoya. At the end of a breath-taking stunning match, the Persian side managed to thrash Italy 3-2 (25-19, 23-25, 28-26, 29-31 and 15-11).

Igor Kolakovic’s boys gained in the upper hand in the first, third and fifth sets while the European side was the winner only in the second and fourth sets.

The Men’s World Grand Champions Cup features a total of six teams that play in a round-robin tournament from September 12 to 17. Nagoya and Osaka host the seventh edition of the tournament.

Italy won the inaugural edition of the World Grand Champions Cup in 1993 and claimed bronze medals in 2005 and 2013, while Iran seek a medal in their third appearance. These two squads met for the second time at the World Grand Champions Cup. In their first encounter, Iran beat Italy in five sets 3-2 (26-24, 16-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12).

While announcing continued studies to send humans to space, the head of Iran’s Aerospace Research Institute (ARI) said they may try sending a robot or a live creature before the final stage of sending a human.

Regarding the project for sending a live creature to space which was halted, the head of ARI Fathollah Ommi stated “we have successfully launched a monkey to space, and now we are conducting research to send a man to space.”

“The preliminary measures to send a human to space are currently underway and the project is to be carried out in two suborbital and orbital phases” said Ommi, stressing that the project is in the study stage at the moment.

According to the head of ARI, the orbital phase of the project will be operational by 2025 and the suborbital phase will take place before that.

When asked whether they will send another live creature into space before a human, he said “it might happen.” Since they intend to launch the live creature to different altitudes of space, several experiments must be conducted to test the selected trajectory for sending a human. It is required to launch the live creature at least 6 times, before they are ready to carry out this mission with a human onboard, he added.

“We might use a robot or another live creature prior to sending a human. If this mission is successful, we will launch a human to space after conducting the necessary tests.” Ommi stated. / Meher news /

Iran’s annual dairy production is anticipated to reach over 10 million tons in the current Iranian calendar year (which ends on March 20, 2018), ISNA reported on Sunday quoting Deputy Agriculture Minister Hassan Rokni as saying.

In an interview with ISNA, the official also put the country’s annual dairy output at 9.6 million tons in the past Iranian calendar year.

Saying that Iran has exported 850,000 tons of dairy products to different countries including some European ones in the previous calendar year, Rokni underlined:  “We enjoy better condition this year as some countries such as Russia are putting some big orders.”

Given high quality and diversity of dairy products in Iran, not only the neighboring countries but also some European ones are the customers of these products, he noted.

/ Tehran times /

An American media says while some Western firms fear President Trump could yet torpedo the nuclear deal, Iran’s tourism industry is booming.

More than 6 million people visited Iran in the year ending March 2017, up 50% on the previous year and three times the number in 2009, according to official data.

The surge in visitors follows the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers that resulted in many sanctions being lifted early the following year, CNN reported.

European airlines such as British Airways and Lufthansa (DLAKY) resumed direct flights to the country, and Iranian authorities relaxed visa requirements. And as more people arrive, demand for accommodation is skyrocketing.

That’s creating opportunities for local entrepreneurs and foreign businesses.

Unlike some Western firms, who are reluctant to invest in Iran because they fear President Trump could yet torpedo the nuclear deal, international hotel chains are moving fast to meet the need for more rooms.

France’s Accor (ACCYY) was the first chain to open in Iran in 2015. It now operates two hotels there.

Spain’s Melia (SMIZF) will open its first hotel next year. Rotana of the United Arab Emirates also has one hotel in the pipeline for early next year and plans three more by 2020.

EasyHotel, a UK-based budget chain, is reported to have signed a deal in July to deliver 500 rooms. It did not respond to a request for comment.

And the market clearly has room for many more players. Iran wants to attract more than 20 million visitors by 2025, according to the state tourism agency.

Many of the new visitors are young backpackers from Europe and Asia, drawn by Iran’s history and culture. The most popular destinations include the ancient cities of Esfahan and Shiraz. It’s also home to Persepolis, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Many of those travelers are looking for budget accommodation, said Jalal Rashedi, who runs five hostels across the country. He offers bed and breakfast for as little as $15 a night, including internet access.

“During the past few years we have had a rise in the number of tourists who are young, and they’re individual travelers,” he told CNN. “They’re young, curious, adventurous people who want to discover the truth about Iran, and they mostly stay at hostels.”

A World Economic Forum report earlier this year named Iran as the world’s cheapest travel destination.

Americans, Brits and Canadians need to apply for a visa in advance, while citizens of many other Western countries can get one on arrival.

And because some sanctions remain in place, the country has few links to international banking networks and Western credit cards won’t work there.

That means it can be difficult to make payments in advance to secure reservations. To get around that, Rashedi launched a website to allow travelers to make reservations at his hostels, and those operated by others, without payments. / Meher news /