TEHRAN - Iran’s export of various services including tourism, transit, and technical engineering reached about $12 billion in the previous Iranian calendar year 1402 (ended on March 19), registering a 20 percent rise compared to a year earlier, an official with the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) announced.

Mohammad-Sadegh Ghanadzadeh, the TPO’s deputy head for international business promotion, put the country’s exports of services in the year 1401 at $10 billion, IRIB reported.

According to the official, the Islamic Republic exported about $2.5 billion of technical engineering services to other countries in the previous year, noting that in case of removing the obstacles the export of such services could increase up to $6.0 billion.

“One of the most important obstacles to the export of technical engineering services is the issuance of guarantees for the participation of companies in tenders in the target countries. Last year, a proposed package was prepared by the Trade Promotion Organization with the help of the Union of Technical and Engineering Services Exporters and proposed to the government, which we expect to solve many of such problems when implemented,” Ghanadzadeh said.

Last month, Mohammadreza Karimzadeh, the director-general of TPO’s Knowledge-Based Products and Technical and Engineering Services Office, said Iran’s export of technical engineering services exceeded $200 million in the first four months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-July 21) from the same period of time in the previous year.

According to Karimzadeh, the exports of the mentioned services increased by 18 percent compared to the previous year’s same period.

The implemented projects in other countries were in various fields including oil and gas, energy transmission lines, information and communication technology as well as water and sewage projects, he noted.

Back in April, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Iran Water Industry Federation said the country exported $1.8 billion worth of technical and engineering services over the past two years.

Stressing the importance of exporting technical and engineering services, Reza Haj Karim said giant steps have been taken in the administration of late President Ebrahim Raisi in the field as compared to the previous years.

Domestic knowledge-based companies have a high potential to export technical and engineering services and can do even better with due support from the government, he underscored.

Haj Karim further noted that Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and East Asian countries are among those whose economic growth is higher than the world average so this Asian market can be a lucrative market for Iranian domestic companies.

As a leading country in the water and electricity industry, Iran stands in the first rank in the region in the export of technical and engineering services in this industry, and this shows the high technical and engineering knowledge and ability of Iranian specialists and companies.

Thanks to the efforts of the country's specialists in the years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Iran is now among the top five power plant turbine manufacturing countries in the world.

EF/MA