TOKYO, 29 August 2003 — Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said yesterday that talks were continuing on a $2 billion deal with Japan to develop one of the world’s biggest untapped oil fields, but he declined to give details. After meeting Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Tokyo, Kharrazi told reporters through an interpreter that it would be in Japan’s interest to invest in Iran, since that would help it secure stable energy supplies.
A Japanese government-backed consortium missed a June 30 deadline for a contract to develop the Azadegan reserves after pressure from the United States — Tokyo’s key security ally — to back away because of concern that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran has denied the charge.
Japan and the rest of the international community want Iran to sign the Additional Protocol to Tehran’s safeguards agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ atomic watchdog. Under the protocol, Iran would have to let the IAEA conduct enhanced inspections of its nuclear facilities.
Meanwhile, Japan’s industrial revival body said yesterday condominium builder Dia Kensetsu and two other firms have been picked as its first targets for restoring financial health. Dia Kensetsu Co. Ltd. is the only publicly traded company of the three, with its shares traded on the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, a spokesman for the state-backed Industrial Revitalization Corp. of Japan (IRCJ) said.
The other two are the Kyushu Industrial Transportation Co., a bus operator in southern Kumamoto prefecture, and the Usui department store in northern Fukushima. “I hope that the decision taken by (IRCJ) will boost efforts to revive the Japanese economy,” said Sadakazu Tanigaki, minister in charge of industry revitalization.
Dia Kensetsu has asked for 92.7 billion yen ($792 million) in debt waivers and 40 billion yen in debt for equity swaps from its main creditors, including main lender Resona Bank, it said in a statement. The funding would erase its 72.5 billion yen negative net worth, it said.
Dia, which booked a 88.8 billion yen net loss in the year to March, also said it would implement a restructuring plan that included laying off 300 of about 3,170 employees. Dia shares fell 25.7 percent or 38 yen to close at 110 yen yesterday before the announcement, still some 50 percent higher than in mid-August, after which rumors about its bailout began to surface.
In another development, Japanese government ministries and agencies will make budget requests of 86.46 trillion yen ($403.8 billion) for the year to March 2005, news reports said. The amount is 5.7 percent more than the initial budget for the current year, Kyodo News and Jiji Press agencies said.
“The figures ... indicate the uphill battle the government faces in trying to achieve its goal of whittling down the general account to around 81.79 trillion yen, its size for the current fiscal year,” Kyodo News said.