Page 50 - IRANRptMay20

materials via Iranian aircraft to help it start the catalytic cracking unit at its Cardon refinery. The unit is required in the production of gasoline.
Both Iran and Venezuela are oil-producing countries.
Washington in December and January sanctioned Mahan Air, claiming it had roles in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and transporting arms and fighters to Syria as part of Iran’s backing of Damascus in that country’s civil war.
Mahan Air has dropped all flights to Thailand and Malaysia amid the coronavirus outbreak, IRNA reported on March 10.
The fortunes of Mahan Air—owned by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)—have sunk in recent years. Back in 2015, it was known as a low-cost long-haul airline that offered prices as low as £300 from Birmingham, UK, to Bangkok. But the carrier has been heavily targeted with US sanctions, with Washington accusing it of transporting weapons and personnel to Middle East conflict zones. It is unable to purchase new airliners from either Boeing or Airbus and several other Western manufacturers and is now largely known for its flights to Far East destinations including China.
On March 8, European aviation authorities announced a temporary blanket ban on IranAir, the Islamic Republic’s flag carrier. But on March 10 the ban was dropped. A ban on IranAir flights introduced by Swedish authorities remains in place.
9.2.4​TMT corporate news
MTN-Irancell ‘ready to attract expatriate investors’
Digital in health and education
The chief executive of MTN-Irancell—the second-largest mobile telecoms business in Iran—told IRIB on April 20 that the company is actively seeking investment from expatriate Iranians.
MTN-Irancell has more than 50mn active users and has led the way in 4G mobile broadband in Iran since 2016. The network has 86%-mobile coverage of Iran, taking in 1,606 cities and towns. The group, backed by South Africa’s multinational MTN telco group, has also invested heavily in the applications market, with its biggest apps investment to date taking the form of a joint project with Rocket Internet that has created the Snapp​!​ ride-hailing app.
The CEO, Bijan Abbasi Arand, said that MTN-Irancell was looking at opportunities to bring in foreign income including from expatriate finance and cited Snapp​!​ as one of its success stories.
Abbasi Arand added that a subsidiary business has been created to facilitate foreign investment in the company and attract foreign capital. He added that the new entity is set up to support further investment in startups in the country. He pointed to "health and education sectors" as important for MTN-Irancell, saying that the firm’s new approach is moving towards advancing digital services that improve people’s lives.
"Irancell's new approach is towards 'digital operator' and the development of digital services that will improve people's quality of life," he added.
The company has in recent years increased its investment in mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), signing deals with several companies, including SamanTel, Shatel Mobile and others.
However, despite significant investment in the industry the MVNO market has failed to take off in Iran.
An MVNO is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the mobile network infrastructure over which it provides services to customers but in fact pays a fee to the network operators.
50​ IRAN Country Report May 2020 www.intellinews.com