EconomyGeneralIran

‘Foreign investment in Iran up 20%’

Iran’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Finance Shamseddin Hosseini says foreign investment in Iran has increased by 20 percent, adding that the government seeks to implement incentive policies for investors.

Despite the West’s sanctions, foreign investment has increased by 20 percent in the country, said Hosseini, Mehr news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Iranian minister put the current figure for foreign investment in the Islamic Republic at USD 3.8 billion saying, “Based on the predictions and plans of (Iran’s) Foreign Investment Organization, the figure will increase remarkably by the end of the (current Iranian) year (March 20, 2012).”

He also said the Iranian government plans to offer incentives to foreign investors and added that a series of supportive and incentive policies including tariff exemptions has been projected to this end.

The Iranian economy minister dismissed Western sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying that Iran enjoys proper status to absorb foreign investment.

The US and its allies accuse Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program, and used this pretext to pressure the UN Security Council into imposing a fourth round of sanctions against Iran.

Following the move, both the US and the EU also imposed unilateral sanctions against the energy and banking sectors of the Islamic Republic.

Iranian officials refute such allegations and stress that as a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency and a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran has a legitimate right to pursue peaceful nuclear technology.

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