TEHRAN – The issuance of investment guarantees at Iran’s Small Industries Investment Guarantee Institute increased three times in the previous Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19), an official with the institute said.

According to Nafiseh Ghorbani, the institute issued investment guarantees worth 4.79 trillion rials (about $9.58 million) in the previous year, IRNA reported.

In terms of numbers, issuance of guarantees has grown by 366 percent in the previous year compared to a year earlier, Ghorbani said.

“Among the important reasons for the increase in the issuance of guarantees in 1402, special attention to targeting, planning, and continuous monitoring of activities can be mentioned,” she explained.

Earlier this month, Iran’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Ehsan Khandouzi said the Islamic Republic of Iran ranks fourth in West Asia in attracting Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) after the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey.

He noted that none of the other countries, namely UAE, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have faced any banking problems in the field of money transfer and sanctions barriers.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Khandouzi pointed to Iran’s export of non-oil commodities and put the value of export of non-oil goods during the administration of the late Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi at $50 billion.

The economy minister also highlighted the transit of goods via Iranian land and said it has risen from 11.5 million tons in 2021 to 18 million tons.

Iran managed to attract more than $11.9 billion of foreign capital within the framework of FDI in the past three years, he stated, Mehr news agency 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.

EF/