TEHRAN – Iran exported around $800 million worth of water and power engineering services in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), the Energy Ministry said, highlighting growing regional demand for the country’s technical expertise.

Mohammad-Vali Alaedini, head of the ministry’s international affairs office, told an export conference on Tuesday that an Iranian company had recently won a contract for water projects in a regional country. He said the ministry aims to ease the participation of domestic firms in overseas tenders for water and electricity projects.

Alaedini noted that Iranian equipment and engineering services in the power sector have already been supplied to many countries in the region at a high standard, boosting the country’s profile as a provider of technical services.

At the same event, senior business figures pressed for reforms in foreign exchange policies to support non-oil exports. Payam Bagheri, vice president of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA), said the Central Bank of Iran’s currency policies currently override trade strategies, limiting exporters’ competitiveness.

Bagheri described exports as the “engine of economic growth and social welfare,” stressing that Iran must shift away from a reliance on crude sales. He said the average value per ton of imports is nearly four times higher than that of exports, underscoring the low value-added nature of most Iranian shipments.

He urged a pivot toward non-oil exports with higher value-added content to achieve sustainable development, identifying the water and power industries as flagbearers of this strategy. Iran’s power sector, once entirely dependent on foreign technology four decades ago, has now emerged as a leading industry globally, he added.

EF/MA