These projects mostly pertained to the petrochemical industry, mining and paper production, SHAT reported.
Major investments in the petrochemical sector include 18.8 trillion rials ($500 million) in Bandar Imam Petrochemical Company’s development project as well as 15.5 trillion rials ($410 million) in a second production site for Fajr Petrochemical Company.
Major projects in the steel sector included a base metal production center for Chadormalu Mining and Industrial Company at a cost of 8.9 trillion rials ($235 million) and development projects in Khorasan Steel Complex and South Kaveh Steel Company with investments of 7.2 trillion rials ($191 million) and 6.6 trillion rials ($174 million) respectively, Financial Tribune reported.
An aggregate of 26 trillion rials ($693 million) worth of investments were made in the launch of paper production factories across the country.
The latest data released by the Central Bank of Iran show ‘industry’ and ‘mining’ sectors grew 5.8% and 0.2% respectively during the nine months of the last Iranian year (started March 20, 2016).
The incumbent government granted more than $4 billion worth of loans to recession-hit small- and medium-sized enterprises last year to help them get back on track.
Some 96% of all the licensed Iranian businesses are considered small- and medium-sized.
The Rouhani government has allocated 87.9 trillion rials ($2.3 billion) to 8,743 new industrial units to start business, creating 151,000 jobs in the process. These were part of 12,469 requests for facilities to start an enterprise.
Industrial parks have attracted $1.84 billion in foreign direct investment since 2013, of which $653 million have been invested after the January 2016 implementation of the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers a year earlier.
Foreign investors have signed 47 contracts to establish SMEs in Iran, which would create as many as 2,740 new jobs. The contracts have been signed by Turkey, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Japan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Croatia, China, Germany, France, Turkmenistan and the UAE.
Iran has defined 160 projects in industrial parks, which need a total of 3.85 billion worth of FDIs. Seven of the 47 contracts have been signed since Implementation Day (January 16, 2016). Of all the agreements, 25 projects have become operational.
The Implementation Day marks the official removal of international economic sanctions against Iran.