ID :
188133
Mon, 06/13/2011 - 10:27
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https://oananews.org//node/188133
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Official Announces Record Foreign Investment in Iran
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian officials announced that the country has set a record in attracting foreign investment funds.
Head of Iran's Organization for Investment and Economic and Technical Assistance Behrouz Alishiri said Iran has beaten a historical record in attracting direct foreign investments.
"In 2010, the country has broken a record in attraction of direct foreign investment, and statistics indicate that we had the highest [investment] attraction rate compared with all the previous years," Alishiri told the Iranian government's official website on Saturday.
Alishiri, however, pointed out that it takes a month to release the exact figure for the investment growth.
The Iranian official also noted that in the next Persian calendar year, Iran plans to boost its attraction of foreign investment by 50 percent.
In 2009, the Islamic Republic also saw the highest rate of foreign investment attraction and with an 86-percent growth, the figure hit the all-time record of $3 billion, and ranked Iran among the top six countries in this respect, he pointed out.
Alishiri praised the achievement and underscored the importance of maintaining the current pace.
He downplayed the effects of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, arguing the growth indicate that foreign entities take heed of favorable economic factors rather than political reservations.
Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.
Tehran says sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path of progress.
Following US pressures on companies to stop business with Tehran, many western companies decided to do a balancing act. They tried to maintain their presence in Iran, which is rich in oil and gas, but not getting into big deals that could endanger their interests in the US.
Yet, after oil giants in the West witnessed that their absence in big deals has provided Chinese, Indian and Russian companies with excellent opportunities to sign up to an increasing number of energy projects and earn billions of dollars, they started showing increasing interest to invest or expand work in Iran.
Some European states have also recently voiced interest in investment in Iran's energy sector after the gas deal was signed between Iran and Switzerland regardless of US sanctions.
The National Iranian Gas Export Company and Switzerland's Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg signed a 25-year deal in March 2008 for the delivery of 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The biggest recent deal, worth €100m ($147m, £80m), was signed by Steiner Prematechnik Gastec, the German engineering company, last year to build equipment for three gas conversion plants in Iran.
In December 2010, the New York Times reported that over the past decade, United States-based companies have done billions of dollars in trade with Iran despite sanctions and trade embargoes imposed on Tehran.
One American company, the daily said, was permitted to do work on an Iranian gas pipeline, despite sanctions aimed at Iran's gas industry in particular.
The transactions have been made possible by a 2000 law that allows exemptions from sanctions for companies selling food or medical products, the report added.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the International and unilateral sanctions against Iran have had no result but inflicting damage on the European companies.
Head of Iran's Organization for Investment and Economic and Technical Assistance Behrouz Alishiri said Iran has beaten a historical record in attracting direct foreign investments.
"In 2010, the country has broken a record in attraction of direct foreign investment, and statistics indicate that we had the highest [investment] attraction rate compared with all the previous years," Alishiri told the Iranian government's official website on Saturday.
Alishiri, however, pointed out that it takes a month to release the exact figure for the investment growth.
The Iranian official also noted that in the next Persian calendar year, Iran plans to boost its attraction of foreign investment by 50 percent.
In 2009, the Islamic Republic also saw the highest rate of foreign investment attraction and with an 86-percent growth, the figure hit the all-time record of $3 billion, and ranked Iran among the top six countries in this respect, he pointed out.
Alishiri praised the achievement and underscored the importance of maintaining the current pace.
He downplayed the effects of sanctions against the Islamic Republic, arguing the growth indicate that foreign entities take heed of favorable economic factors rather than political reservations.
Iran is under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment, saying the demand is politically tainted and illogical.
Tehran says sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path of progress.
Following US pressures on companies to stop business with Tehran, many western companies decided to do a balancing act. They tried to maintain their presence in Iran, which is rich in oil and gas, but not getting into big deals that could endanger their interests in the US.
Yet, after oil giants in the West witnessed that their absence in big deals has provided Chinese, Indian and Russian companies with excellent opportunities to sign up to an increasing number of energy projects and earn billions of dollars, they started showing increasing interest to invest or expand work in Iran.
Some European states have also recently voiced interest in investment in Iran's energy sector after the gas deal was signed between Iran and Switzerland regardless of US sanctions.
The National Iranian Gas Export Company and Switzerland's Elektrizitaetsgesellschaft Laufenburg signed a 25-year deal in March 2008 for the delivery of 5.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year.
The biggest recent deal, worth €100m ($147m, £80m), was signed by Steiner Prematechnik Gastec, the German engineering company, last year to build equipment for three gas conversion plants in Iran.
In December 2010, the New York Times reported that over the past decade, United States-based companies have done billions of dollars in trade with Iran despite sanctions and trade embargoes imposed on Tehran.
One American company, the daily said, was permitted to do work on an Iranian gas pipeline, despite sanctions aimed at Iran's gas industry in particular.
The transactions have been made possible by a 2000 law that allows exemptions from sanctions for companies selling food or medical products, the report added.
Iranian officials have always stressed that the International and unilateral sanctions against Iran have had no result but inflicting damage on the European companies.
