The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and the Turkey-based ECO Trade and Development Bank (ETDB) have signed a memorandum on strengthening bilateral ties, the CBI said on October 10.

ETDB is a Eurasian multilateral development bank established on behalf of an ECO (Economic Cooperation Organisation) to promote socio-economic development and trade in developing countries. It was created in 2005 by member states and is headquartered in Sisli, Turkey with representative offices in several other countries.

The agreement was signed at the CBI’s headquarters in Tehran by central bank governor Valliollah Seif and ETDB's Turkish vice president Burhanettin Aktas, who flew in to reopen the bank's Iran branch this week.

The memorandum was drawn up following a clearance issued by the Iranian cabinet in September that permitted the development bank to resume operations in the Islamic Republic. It was forced to close its doors when crippling nuclear sanctions were applied to Iran.

Neither side has announced how much investment ETDB intends to invest in the Iranian economy.

The ECO is a Eurasian political and economic intergovernmental organisation originally founded in 1985 in Tehran.

Its subsequent bank was set up to facilitate trade between the member states. Besides Iran and Turkey, the other ETDB members are Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.