TEHRAN – The Iranian government has managed to attract $11.6 billion of foreign investment in various sectors since the administration took office in 2021, Shana reported.

As reported, in the mentioned figure the share of the oil and gas projects has been $4.8 billion which means the oil industry accounted for 41 percent of the country’s total foreign investment in the mentioned two years.

After the oil sector, the industrial sector has had the highest rate of investment attracting, and during the said period over $4.1 billion of foreign investment was attracted in the mentioned sector.

The industrial sector accounted for 35.3 percent of the total foreign investment.

Back in March, the head of the Organization of Investment, Economic and Technical Assistant of Iran (OIETAI) announced that foreign investment in the country reached more than $4.0 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).

Ali Fekri, also Iran’s deputy minister of economy, stated that nearly $4.0 billion of foreign investment was attracted in each year of the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, who assumed office in August 2021.

He went on to say that Iran’s economic relations with most countries are on a growth trajectory despite the sanctions imposed against the country.

In December 2023, the Ministry of Industry, Mining, and Trade announced that 73 foreign investment projects valued at about $382.4 million were approved in the first six months of the previous Iranian calendar year (March 21-September 22, 2023).

According to the Industry Ministry data, of the total number of investment projects in the mentioned six-month period, 93.8 percent was the share of the industry sector, 2.2 percent was the share of the mining sector, while trade-related projects accounted for four percent of the total figure.

Approved foreign investment includes all applications, including investment to create new projects, purchase of shares of existing companies, as well as foreign investment in the form of contractual arrangements.

Out of the 73 cases of foreign investment in the mentioned sectors, 24 cases had 100 percent foreign investment, 34 cases were joint ventures and 15 cases were in the form of civil partnership, mutual sale, or build-operate-transfer (BOT).

The highest volume of foreign investment approved in the industry, mining, and trade sectors in the period under review was in the categories of wood and wood products, extraction of minerals, manufacture of chemical products, and basic metals.

Afghanistan, China, Turkey, India, and the United Arab Emirate were the top five countries with the highest volume of investment, while Fars, South Khorasan, Khorasan Razavi, Hormozgan, and Tehran were the top five provinces in terms of the volume of approved foreign investment.

Earlier in April 2023, the Iranian government approved a new resolution to facilitate foreign investment in the country.

According to the Investment and Economic and Technical Assistance Organization of Iran, the main purpose of this resolution was to encourage investors from other countries, especially from neighboring countries, to invest in Iran.

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