Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 27
By Gazenfer Hamidov – Trend:
Iran has approved a proposal by France for investment in bitumen facility in the southern part of the Islamic Republic.
According to a report released by the country’s ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade, Iran's Foreign Investment Board has approved a project for construction of a complex for maintenance and storage of chemicals.
The project worth $27 million will be implemented in Iranian southern province of Hormozgan and the Iranian side of the project is Hormoz bitumen company.
The Iranian administration authorized a $2.7 billion in foreign direct investment during the first nine months of the current fiscal year (started March 20, 2017), which is 46 percent less compared to $5 billion worth of projects approved by the administration in the same period of the preceding year.
According to the industry ministry’s report, over 58 investment proposals, including 42 new projects were approved by Iran's Foreign Investment Board in the 9-month period, compared to 52 proposals in the first nine months of the last fiscal year.
Germany stood at the top of the list of approved investment projects with $720.87 million for construction of a production plant of photovoltaic panels.
During the mentioned period, statistics from the Iranian government put the Irish investors in second place with $466.155 million worth of investments for a mining extraction and exploitation project, followed by China with a $232.551 million.
The next place also belongs to Germany with a project for construction of two air separation units in Chabahar Free Trade–Industrial Zone (CFZ), south eastern Iran. The project, worth $165.8 million was authorized in October 2017.
Dutch investors also are at the top place with $102.056 million of investment for an online trade project. The Iranian partner of the Dutch side is Digikala, the biggest e-commerce startup in Iran.
Proposals submitted by investors from Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Austria, Italy, Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Switzerland, France, the UAE, South Korea, Iraq and Cayman Islands have also been accepted as authorized projects.
According to the Iranian ministry, over 71 investment proposals (worth $5.06 billion) were approved by Iran's Foreign Investment Board in the last fiscal year (ended March 20, 2017). The value was $6.7 billion for the preceding fiscal year (ended March 2016), registering a big growth compared to $915 million in 2015, when the international sanctions against Iran were in place.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s (UNCTAD) statistics indicate that Iran attracted $3.372 billion foreign direct investment in 2016, compared to $2.05 billion in 2015.