Iran will finance two power plants in Ecuador and extend a $40-million loan for business development, officials from both countries said Thursday, three months after the first visit by an Ecuadoran president to Tehran.
Hamid Chitchian, visiting senior deputy minister of energy of Iran, said after meeting with President Rafael Correa that ground would be broken in four months for two 10-megawatt and 15-megawatt power plants with Iranian financial backing.
Correa's office, in turn, said there also were joint plans with Iran to build a thermo-electric power plant in the country sometime in the future.
Central Bank of Ecuador President Carlos Vallejo said Iran would lend $40 million to Ecuador's National Financial Corporation for the purpose of promoting small- and medium-size businesses.
The funding arrangements were part of cooperation agreements signed by Correa and the Iranian government when he visited Tehran in early December, the first visit ever by an Ecuadoran president to Iran.
Chitchian's visit here follows that of Iranian Cooperatives Minister Mohammad Abbasi in early January, during which he announced a $280-million loan for oil projects development in Ecuador.
Iran is the second-largest exporter in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, while Ecuador is the smallest member of the 12-nation cartel.
Ecuador has little trade with the Islamic republic, but shares with it an opposition to U.S. government policies, even if some critics see that as a poor basis for closer diplomatic relations.
Correa took office in 2007, the same year that Tehran increased diplomatic ties with Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, all leftist critics of the U.S.