Page 23 - IRANRptJun19

source: World Bank
Currency Fund for Iranian Expatriates steps up efforts to deliver investment to homeland
Iranian president orders the removal of barriers to foreign investment
The Currency Fund for Iranian Expatriates is looking to cooperate with expats to bring investment to Iran, Mehr News Agency reported on April 15.
An estimated 10-15mn first generation Iranians alone live abroad.
The fund, based on the free trade zone island of Kish in the Persian Gulf, is one of only a few organisations that looks to connect Iranians abroad with projects inside Iran.
Director general of the fund Amir Soozanchi is one of a modest number of Iranian business people who look to tap into foreign capital. The fund has no direct link to the government of Iran.
“We, the Iranian expatriate community love our country very much and we are currently conducting 12 infrastructure projects across Iran,” Soozanchi said at a business conference held in the southern Iranian province of Hormozgan. The conference attempted to promote the southern region’s investment advantages.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has tasked ministries and state bodies to pursue measures that will create a production boom and has ordered the removal of barriers to foreign investment that could be delivered by expatriate Iranians, Mehr News reported on May 20.
The renewed US sanctions has seen many foreign investors in Iran make for the exit in recent months, with even EU efforts made so far in fighting back against Washington’s policy failing to dissuade a slew of big European companies from leaving the country. Foreign investment has plummeted with large players like Total and PSA Group exiting the country.
Meanwhile, foreign investors who invest a minimum of $250,000 in Iran are to be offered a five-year residence permit, Mehr News Agency has reported. The president wants the scrapping of unnecessary and redundant regulations and the relaxation of rules for inward investment where possible.
Iran‘s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organisation (CHHTO) has been tasked with attracting more inbound visitors by whatever means are necessary and feasible
23 IRAN Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com