TEHRAN- Some $554.4 million of foreign direct investment (FDI) has been approved by the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade during the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-July 22).

The mentioned amount of FDI has been approved for the implementation of 24 industry, mining and trade projects.

The figure shows a 60-percent rise in comparison to the same period last year, ISNA reported on Wednesday.

In the first four months of last year, 24 industrial, mining and trade projects were approved with $346.3 million of foreign investment.

Iranian industry, mining and trade sectors attracted $3.5 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 20), which indicates a 75-percent growth from the figure of its preceding year, according to Afrouz Bahrami, the director general of Foreign Investment Office of the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade.

As previously reported, Iran expects a 10-fold increase of FDI in industry and mining sectors by the end of the Sixth Five-Year National Development Plan (2021).

Based on the latest report of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Iran has managed to rise its FDI 50 percent to $5.019 billion in 2017.

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