TEHRAN – Iranian banks are going to pay 20 trillion rials (about $476.2 million) of low-interest-rate facilities to the country’s exporting companies, IRNA reported, quoting the country’s industry, mining and trade minister.

Reza Rahmani noted that following his ministry’s plans for promoting non-oil exports, the banks are going to provide exporting companies with facilities with a 14.5-percent interest rate.

He mentioned the re-injection of foreign currency into the country’s economy by exporting companies, saying: “The rate of the return of foreign currency earned by exporters this year has been several times higher than the previous year, and this reflects better decision-making in this area.”

Referring to Iran's free trade deal with the Eurasian Union, Rahmani said, "We have negotiated with some of these countries about preferential and free tariffs."
Increasing non-oil export to the neighboring countries has become one of the major plans that the Iranian government is pursuing in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21, 2019).

Back in August 2019, Deputy Industry Minister Hossein Modares Khiabani said his ministry was planning to increase the value of Iran’s non-oil exports to its 15 neighbors up to $50 billion.

“Our goal is to be able to meet five percent of our neighboring countries' needs, which would amount to more than $50 billion a year considering the total import of all the 15 countries which is at least $1 trillion annually,” he said.

The country’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) also prepared a “Non-Oil Export Support Package” for the rest of the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 19, 2020), which was approved by Iran’s Resistance Economy Headquarters last week.

According to TPO Head Hamid Zadboum, in this package, various incentives have been considered for exporters, which will be provided for them based on the priorities determined in the package.

EF/MA