Iran hopes to attract $13B in foreign investment
By Kamila Aliyeva
Foreign investment volume in Iran is likely to reach the point of $13 billion during the current fiscal year which is to end on March 21.
The country has already attracted $ 11 billion of foreign investment over the last ten months, said Hossein Salimi, the chairman of Iranian and Foreign Joint Venture Investment Association, affiliated to Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture.
Salimi further added that the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA / nuclear deal) encouraged foreigners to invest in Iran.
The landmark nuclear deal was signed in January 2016 with the world powers and allowed to remove the nuclear related sanctions against the Islamic Republic in exchange for curbing the country’s nuclear activity.
Overall, Iran’s economic outlook has improved since the deal.
Salimi claimed that the volume of foreign investment in the country increased by four times during the past Iranian calendar year as compared to the previous year.
To reach the economic growth of eight percent Iran needs to finance about 20 percent of its development projects through foreign investment.
Thus, Iran made up a plan to attract $43 billion in foreign investment over the next years.
The statistics of previous years show the falling trend in attracting foreign investment. The volume of foreign investment in the country reached $4.7 billion in 2012 which dropped to $3.1 billion in 2013 and $2.1 billion in 2014.
Bushehr and Khuzestan provinces enjoy the highest volume of foreign investment which mostly goes for energy sector. In 2012, provinces of Fars, Gilan, Tehran, Kerman, Mazandaran and West Azerbaijan ranked first to sixth place in attracting foreign investment in the country.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani proposed a draft budget plan which suggests that the country’s economic growth over the next Iranian calendar year (starting March 21) will amount of 7.6 percent.
The World Bank has predicted that Iran’s economic growth in 2017 would hit 5.2 percent, 4.8 percent in 2018 and 4.5 percent in 2019.
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