Dalga Khatinoglu, Trend Agency's Iran Service Head
Some high ranking officials in Iran have repeatedly mentioned UNCTAD's latest report about attracting $5 billion direct foreign investment by Iran during 2012 as a country's victory to overcome sanctions and the good condition of the country's economic performance.
According to the latest statistics released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on June 27, Iran attracted about $4.2 billion worth of foreign direct investment in 2011, while this figure increased by 17 per cent in 2012, reaching $4.87 billion.
Iranian officials say the total attracted foreign direct investments (FDI) during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's two term presidency (2005-2013) hit a record compared to previous governments,.
The Organisation for Investment, Economic & Technical Assistance of Iran's (OIETAI) statistics indicates that during Ahmadinejad's presidency, some $24.4 billion of FDI have been attracted, while this figure for his predecessors Mohammad Khatami (1997-2005) and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani (1989-1997) was respectively $10.452 billion and $350 million.
UNCTAD didn't report the details of the attracted FDI by Iran, but this body recognises any absorbed investment in a country by a company which is registered overseas as a foreign investment outlet. In other words, the investment of any company (Iranian of non-Iranian) in Iran which is registered in a foreign country is calculated as FDI.
For instance, Iranian businessman Babak Zanjani, who has been blacklisted by the U.S. in March and four months before that by EU, told BBC Persian broadcast station in early March 2013 that he transferred about four billion euro (equal to $5.19 billion) into Iran. Zanjani, who owns 60 companies in several Central Asia and east Asia countries, didn't mentioned the period of transferring the assets, but this figure is even above Iran's absorbed $4.87 billion FDI in 2012.