Page 17 - IRANRptFeb21

4.0​ Real Economy 4.1​ Industrial production
Iran’s SMEs record 17% exports growth in first half of Persian year
Iranian government pledges 40 trillion rial to drive indigenisation of foreign product parts
The value of products produced by Iranian small and medium sized enterprises grew 16.7% y/y growth in the first six months of the 2020/2021 Persian calendar year (March 20 - September 22), Mehr News Agency reported on October 4.
The depreciation of the Iranian rial (IRR), which hit 300,000 to the USD for the first time ever last week on the unregulated free market, was the principal contributor to the boost in exports, with regional neighbours seeing Iranian products favourable in terms of their cost compared with locally produced items.
Deputy CEO of the Iran Small Industries and Industrial Park Organization (ISIPO), Asghar Masaheb, reportedly referred to the boost caused by the severe depreciation of the rial and said that the growth in exports was due to markets including Afghanistan and Iraq.
The total value of exported products in the H1 period stood at $1.74bn, at the fixed government exchange rate of IRR42,000 to one US dollar. In the H1 period of the previous Persian calendar year, the total value was $1.49bn.
“In this period, SMEs exported maximum volumes of their products to countries including Pakistan at $1bn, Iraq at $364mn, Afghanistan at $83mn, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at $50mn, Turkey at $36mn, Azerbaijan at $26mn, Armenia at $25mn and India at $20mn,” Masaheb said.
Popular exports included industrial machinery, white goods including fridges and freezers and gas heaters.
Iran has set aside Iranian rial (IRR) 40tn ($980mn at the official exchange rate, $172mn at the free market rate) for industrial indigenisation projects, Mehr News Agency has reported.
The country has a long history of taking foreign technology and making it its own. Examples of this in the auto industry include the localisation of the
17​ IRAN Country Report February 2021 www.intellinews.com