TEHRAN- Iranian Deputy Industry Minister Mohsen Salehinia said that there are about 80,000 production units in the country, of which 68,000 units are active, IRNA reported.

Of the mentioned number, 90 percent are small industrial units, six percent are medium-sized industrial units and four percent are large industrial units, the official said.

The deputy minister further said that some 195 trillion rials (about $4.6 billion) of facilities were paid in the framework of production thriving plan to 28,202 enterprises in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20, 2018).

Some 4,600 small and medium-sized units are under construction in industrial estates of the country, Sadeq Najafi, the managing director of Iran Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organization (ISIPO), announced last month and put the physical progress of constructing these units at over 70 percent.

The official further said that when these units start operation 74,000 new jobs will be created in the industrial estates.

Najafi has previously announced that through supportive measures taken by the government, some 201 industrial units that had stopped their activity resumed their operation during the first quarter of current Iranian calendar year (March 21-June 21).

Referring to the 350 trillion-rial (about $8.13 billion) facilities with 10-percent interest rate allocated to the small and medium-sized entrepreneurs (SMEs), the official said these facilities should be paid to the units that can continue their activity.

He also announced that 36 Iranian SMEs attracted above $2.3 billion of foreign investments during the previous Iranian calendar year.

MA/MA