Iran drew nearly $10b in foreign investment this year, official says
Iran has attracted close to $10 billion in foreign investment in the current Persian calendrer year that began on March 21, a senior official said on Tuesday, stressing that improving conditions for existing investors remains a priority.
Mehdi Heidari, head of the Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance (OIETAI) told the first “National Branding” scientific conference in Tehran that the OIETAI policy was focused on resolving issues for investors to build a positive experience and send a signal of confidence to the market.
Heidari, who also serves as deputy economy minister, described national brands as the determining factors in reducing investment risk and financial premium.
“While Iran benefits from strong human capital, it faces serious challenges in indicators such as economic stability, governance quality, transparency, legal credibility and infrastructure — challenges that directly hurt national brands,” he said, according to IRNA.
At the same event, Saeed Shojaei, deputy industry minister, said; “Security of property rights, fragmented laws, and concentration of production at lower levels of the value chain have prevented the formation of powerful Iranian brands at the regional and global levels.”
More than 92% of the country’s production is concentrated at the lower and middle levels of the value chain, and Iran’s unwritten economic strategy for years has been earning foreign currency through raw material sales, he said.
Shojaei called the shift in industrial policy direction in the Seventh Development Plan a sign of realism.
The Iranian government has implemented a measure allowing foreign investors to bring capital into the country in the form of standard gold bullion.
Under a decision approved in October by the Foreign Investment Board, investors can import gold, then offer it on the Iran Mercantile Exchange or the Foreign Exchange and Gold Center.
The move is expected to preserve asset value while enabling investors to enter production and export-oriented sectors.
According to a February 8 report by the Iran Center for Exchange of Currency and Gold (ICE), the country attracted more than $140 million in foreign investment through the import and sale of standard gold bullion.
The center’s data showed foreign investors have imported and sold 488 kilograms of standard gold bullion since October.