TEHRAN - The 89th meeting of the dialogue council of the government and the Tehran Province’s private sector was held on Wednesday, in which issues related to the exports of technical and engineering services were discussed.

The meeting was attended by Governor-General of Tehran Province Mohsen Mansouri and TCCIMA Head Masoud Khansari, as well as the representatives of the province’s private sector, the portal of Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (TCCIMA) reported.

During the gathering, the government and private sector representatives, especially analyzed the issues and challenges that the exporters of technical and engineering services to Iraq are currently facing.

Speaking at the meeting, Iraj Golabtounchi, the head of the Iranian Construction Companies Syndicate, presented a report on the capacities and challenges of the country’s construction companies.

In his report, he put the number of certified contractors in the country at 54,898 companies and the number of engineering consulting companies at 3,665 companies.

“If we want to refer projects to all contractor and consultant companies, they will have the capacity to take part in $200 billion worth of projects,” Golabtounchi said.

Stating that the total number of direct employees in the country’s construction sector is more than 2.6 million people, he underlined some of the most important reasons for promoting presence in international markets, saying: “Lack of suitable domestic markets or projects for contracting activities, the sharp reduction of the number of construction projects, having access to reliable and effective foreign currency and helping to cut off dependence on oil, as well as representing Iran's capacities and capabilities in the world markets are some of the reasons that we should expand our activities in international markets.”

Gulabtounchi further referred to the export trend of technical and engineering services in the last 10 years and said: “Exports in this sector went from 4.1 billion dollars in 2010 with a downward trend to 491 million dollars in 2019 and then once again increased to 1.8 billion dollars in 2021.”

EF/MA