Azerbaijan, Baku, Oct. 17 /Trend/
Despite the global economic sanctions, more than 400 foreign companies are now directly investing in Iran in different sectors, said Behrouz Alishiri, the deputy economy minister and the head of Organization for Investment, Economic and Technical Assistance of Iran, The Tehran Times reported.
"In terms of the growth of foreign direct investment (FDI), Iran is ranked among the world's top countries. More than 400 foreign companies are now directly investing in Iran in different levels of investment," Alishiri said in an exclusive interview. "I should emphasize that this figure is the list of the companies on ongoing projects that we know; many other firms are now acting in Iran's market but have not yet register in our organization."
He stressed that this statistics is just about the companies which investing in Iran on foreign direct investment (FDI) method.
"Many other foreign companies are now investing in Iran in other finance methods, but we don't have the exact statistics of them," Alishiri said.
Iran's refusal to abandon its nuclear activities has resulted in resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council in 2010, as well as additional unilateral sanctions approved by the U.S. Congress and the foreign ministers of all EU countries, which were primarily directed against the banking, financial and energy sectors of Iran.
Restrictions imposed by the EU include the ban on the sale of equipment, technologies and services to Iran's energy sector which is a major source of revenue for the Iranian regime; the same measure refers to the refining industry. New investments in Iran's energy sector have also been also prohibited as a whole.
Edited by T.Konyayeva.