Azernews.Az

Iran has exported $1.439 billion worth of technical and engineering services in the first six months of the current calendar year, which started on March 21.

The country's total trade value (excluding gas condensates trades) stood at $34.567 billion, the IRNA News Agency reported.

Head of the Association of Iranian Exporters of Technical and Engineering Services, Mohammad Reza Ansari said earlier that Iran totally exported $2.3 billion worth of technical, engineering services in the previous calendar year, the ILNA News Agency reported.

"Iran exported $4.2 billion worth of technical and engineering services in the Iranian calendar year of 1390 (ended on March 20, 2012), but the figure decreased in the previous year," he said.

"Iran has the capacity to export $20 billion worth of technical and engineering services," Ansari added.

"Iran can reach the goal of exporting $20 billion worth of technical and engineering services in five years," he said.

Ansari said in February that over 14,000 Iranians are working in foreign countries. The US-generated sanctions have made it very hard for the private sector to export technical and engineering services, ISNA quoted Ansari as saying. Ansari had previously said that the Iranian companies have the potential to annually carry out the projects worth up to $20 billion in different countries.

Former Industry, Mines, and Trade Minister Mehdi Ghazanfari said in June that Iran's technical and engineering exports are predicted to exceed $10 billion in the current Iranian calendar year, which began on March 21, IRNA reported.

This will be the minimum volume of technical and engineering exports and the country's capacity will be much more than this, he noted.

He emphasized the role of free trade zones in increasing the technical-engineering exports. Over 120 Iranian companies implemented several development plans in 60 countries last year.