Iran: $25b of Foreign Investment Attracted in Four Years

Financial Tribune – Iran attracted $24.95 billion in foreign investments from Sept. 23, 2013, to Sept. 22, 2017, the director general of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade’s Foreign Investment Office said.

Afrouz Bahrami added that the figure accounts for less than 2% of all the FDI made worldwide during the period, Hamshahri Online reported.

According to the report, Germany, China, Turkey, Austria, the UAE and France were the biggest investors in Iran during the period under review.

The most attractive industries for foreign investors in Iran were polymer and chemicals, steel, trade, motor vehicles, mining, plastic and medical devices.

Alborz, Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, Fars, West Azarbaijan, Kerman, Zanjan and Qazvin were the most attractive Iranian provinces for foreign investments during the period.

As per the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan (2017-22), the government needs to attract at least $50 billion annually in foreign investment (direct, finance or joint investment) plus 5,800 trillion rials ($145 billion) in domestic investment to achieve an 8% economic growth.

This is while the country managed to absorb only $3.37 billion in FDI in 2016, accounting for 0.19% of total global investment ($1,780 billion).