TEHRAN – Managing Director of Iran’s Advanced Industries Research and Development Fund (AIRDF) has said that the country’s advanced industries require 700 trillion rials (about $16.66 billion) of funding in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), IRNA reported.

“The amount of credit required by the country's advanced industries this year is 700 trillion rials, but due to the country's economic conditions and the fund's limited capital and the government's modified budget, this figure may not be realized,” Reza Naqipour-Asl said.

According to Nagipour-Asl, the fund has put various programs on agenda to fulfill the slogan of the year which is “surge in production”; one of this programs is to facilitate the payment of loans for knowledge-based companies that refer to the fund.

The official noted that the fund has no restrictions on the payment of facilities to advanced industries, and this year it should move towards guarantee-based supports of such industries so that, given the limited capital of the fund, at least by providing guarantees some of the problems of this sector can be resolved.

One other measure which can be taken considering the fund's limited resources this year is to provide expert services to the applicant companies; this is also on the agenda, he said.

Back in February, Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry announced that AIRDF provided a total of 58 loans worth 491.28 billion rials (about $11.6 million) to the advanced industries in the first 11 months of the previous Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2019-February 19, 2020).

AIRDF holding is a subsidiary of Iran’s industry, mining, and trade ministry.

The industry ministry has been following several programs for promoting domestic production and increasing exports in the current Iranian calendar year.

Coming under seven major axes, the ministry’s programs mainly focus on boosting production in various industrial sectors.

EF/MA