TEHRAN- About three decades ago, with the increase in the country's engineering capacity compared to the domestic needs, the government came to believe that there should be exports in areas such as roads, buildings, power plants, and dams construction, as well as water transmission lines, oil, gas, and refinery projects, and even consider incentives for it.

This importance caused the government to plan an annual export capacity of $25 billion for technical and engineering services, a capacity that, in addition to the development of the commodity sector, could create jobs, boost economic growth, and improve the trade balance for the country.

Based on this, the annual growth of nearly 40 percent in the export of technical and engineering services, which was said to be a worthy substitute for oil revenues, started in the late Iranian 1980s (two decades ago) with the help of supports and incentives, and even in the Iranian calendar year 1390 (March 2011-2012), a record of $4.118 billion per year was achieved, and technical and engineering services were exported to 12 countries.

In fact, the jump in the exports of technical-engineering services took place in that year due to the allocation of export incentives for the exporters of this sector.

But since then, a downward trend occurred in the export of technical and engineering services, until the export of these services reached $491 million in the Iranian year 1399, with a 10 percent decrease every year.

The decline in the export of the mentioned services has been mainly because of some domestic policies as well as sanctions ad banking limitations and non-issuance of guarantees.

But, from the second half of the past Iranian calendar year 1400 (September 2021), after a decade of drop in the export of technical-engineering services, exporting such services started an upward trend, as the current government attaches special attention to this issue.

As reported, through implementing 34 projects in 18 countries, the value of Iran’s technical and engineering services exports hit $2.304 billion in the past Iranian year (ended on March 20).

As announced by the head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO), the exports of technical and engineering services increased by 400 percent in the past year compared to the preceding year.

Alireza Peyman-Pak had said that the export of the mentioned services is planned to surpass $4 billion in the present year.

He noted that at the beginning of the current government’s administration, TPO was tasked to hold meetings with the Association of Iranian Exporters of Technical and Engineering Services to explore the challenges and issues in the way of exporting such services.

The TPO head further said that the exports of technical and engineering services are set to increase to $6-$7 billion by the end of the current government’s incumbency (August 2025).

Meanwhile, over the past year, the Iranian government has been pursuing a plan to increase the export of technical and engineering goods and services to neighboring countries.

The head of Iran’s Planning and Budget Organization (PBO) has said that many of the countries in the region are seeking the Islamic Republic’s engineering and technical services and the country can provide them with such services.

“The 13th government’s major policy is to expand presence in target markets, and many countries in the region are looking for our engineering and industrial capabilities,” Masoud Mir-Kazemi said back in October 2021.

Speaking in a meeting with some of the country’s major contractor companies, Mir-Kazemi noted that such companies should become more productive, value-creating companies.

"Maintaining international economic markets is more important than entering those markets, and to achieve this important goal, the government should pay special attention to organizing the private sector activities in target markets,” he said.

“We know the value of the work of the country's technical, engineering, and professional organizations. The talent and potential of these companies should not be taken for granted,” the official added

The latest data released in terms of Iran’s export of technical-engineering services indicate that the country’s value of such services export hit $800 million in the first seven months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-October 22).

As announced by Mahmoud Eskandari, the director-general of TPO’s Office of Knowledge-Based Products and Technical-Engineering Services, considering the Iranian companies taking part in the tenders held in the neighboring countries, the figure will surpass $2 billion by the yearend.