€406m Foreign Funding for Khuzestan Water Project
EghtesadOnline: First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri has given the nod to the use of foreign financing, in view of the government's limited financial resources, to fund two public projects: pumping water to the northern parts of Khuzestan Province and constructing three hospitals, one each in the cities of Tehran, Shiraz and Tabriz.
The decision was made in a Monday meeting of the Economy Council presided by the veep. The ministers of oil, economy, health, industries as well as the governor of the Central Bank of Iran and the chairman of Iran chamber of commerce were also in attendance, Jahangiri's news portal reported.
Khuzestan is among the many regions in Iran that suffers from water shortage.
Jahangiri told the meeting that Khuzestan can use 406 million euros ($484 million)in foreign funding for the major water supply project in the north of the province, according to Financial Tribune.
According to Health Minister Hassan Qazizadeh Hashemi, Iran needs 70,000 hospital beds. Referring to the recent opening of lines of credit by foreign financiers, Jahangiri called on the Iranian private sector to take advantage of this opportunity and carry out their development projects. Notably, Iran signed its biggest credit line deal in recent years with South Korea's Eximbank last month. The deal envisages as much as €8 billion in loans provided by South Korean companies to finance various projects in Iran.