Iran allocates $94b for completing semi-finished projects

TEHRAN,Jan.5(MNA) - The administration of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has allocated 1.15 quadrillion rials (about $94 billion) for completing semi-finished national projects, First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi stated. The main aims of the projects are tackling economic problems, accelerating the implementation of development plans, and meeting the domestic market’s need for medicine, IRNA quoted Rahimi as saying on Friday. In December 2012, the Iranian Ministry of Industry, Mine, and Trade announced that it had completed nearly 2,000 semi-finished projects through investing 40 trillion rials (about $3.3 billion). The projects had created about 10,000 jobs, according to the report. The Ahmadinejad administration and the parliament have agreed to finance production sector projects through using revenues of the National Development Fund (NDF) and crude oil sales. The NDF Deputy Director Ehsan Sharifi said in December 2012 that about $43 billion had been deposited in the fund. Iran transfers 20 percent of its oil revenues to the NDF. President Ahmadinejad recently said that the NDF’s assets would hit $55 billion by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which ends on March 20, 2013.