TEHRAN - Iran’s Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry has approved 14 new foreign investment projects, worth $395.868 million during the first two months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-May 21), IRNA reported.

Of the mentioned projects, seven projects worth $27.190 million are underway and the other seven with $368.678 million are going through final stages to be operational.

According to the Industry Ministry, four of the above-mentioned projects worth $11.568 million have been fully funded by foreign investors, and the other ten projects worth $384.3 million, have been funded by joint ventures.

Thirteen of these projects were industrial projects and only one was related to the business sector.

The Netherlands, Turkey and Germany are the first three investor countries in terms of investment volume in these projects, and food products and beverages, tobacco products, as well as rubber and plastics comprised the first three investment groups in terms of the number of projects.

As reported, in the mentioned period, a total of 28 projects worth $550.459 million have been approved in all the country’s economic sectors.

In late June, Iranian Finance and Economic Affairs Minister Farhad Dejpasand said that the government is providing especial facilities for foreign investors that bring in over $250,000 of investment into the country.

“Following a plan for supporting foreign investment, we have provided facilities for attracting foreign investments over $250,000, and on this basis we are expected to have a good performance in foreign investment this year,” Dejpasand said in a press conference.

The official noted that in the Q4 of the last Iranian calendar year (December 21, 2018-March 20, 2019), nearly $4 billion of foreign investment was attracted in various areas while the figure stood at $1.7 billion in last year’s first half (March 21 -September 22, 2018).

Earlier in May, President Hassan Rouhani ordered executive bodies to take immediate steps to remove obstacles to domestic and foreign investment in the country.
The decisions came as the U.S. has introduced the harshest ever sanctions against Iran in line with the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” on Iran, a policy that analysts and politicians say is intended to strangulate Iran.

EF/MA