Page 18 - IRANRptOct20

Startups offered IRR4bn in loans from Iran’s Presidential Innovation and Prosperity Fund
to a wider range of markets, turning the devaluation of the rial to their advantage. In 2019-20, non-oil exports, totalling $41.3 billion, exceeded oil exports for the first time in Iran’s modern history. Around half of Iran’s non-oil exports were in manufactured goods, meaning that Iran’s factories earned more than double what the country’s oil rigs earned in export revenue last year.”
Sanctions pressure contributed to a 7% decline in total non-oil exports, but the total remains near historic highs, said Batmanghelidj, with Iranian consumer goods and industrial products—ranging from cookies to stainless steel—exported widely within the Middle East as well as further afield to China, Russia and Europe.
While Iran’s oil sector decreased by 35% in 2019-20, its manufacturing sector only contracted by 1.8%.
Iran’s automotive and steel sectors, dominated by inefficient state-owned companies, have been severely impacted by US sanctions and an accompanying rise in inflation which has depressed domestic consumption, but the private sector—including small and medium enterprises which produce food products, home goods, and apparel, among other consumer products—is seen as having compensated for the struggles of the state firms.
And with the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic having depressed oil prices, non-oil exports have become even more important to Iran’s economy.
Iran’s Presidential Innovation and Prosperity Fund is to provide startups with coronavirus-aid loans of up to IRR4bn (€23,000 at the free market rate) at a 9% interest rate, ITMEN reported on May 11.
Many small enterprises in Iran have been dealt a heavy blow in recent months with the country’s US sanctions-hit economy further stressed and diminished by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
Ali Vahdat, CEO of the fund, said: "This [funding] will [specifically] help companies active in the field of manufacturing-related equipment and supplies, while it will also support and continue the business of small knowledge-based companies, accelerators and suppliers of shared workspaces that have been damaged [by the virus outbreak’s impacts]."
Companies eligible for the fund must have a workforce of fewer than 50 people or recorded sales of less than IRR20bn in the last Persian calendar year (ended March 21).
Vahdat added: “The payment period for these facilities will be six months and a ‘breathing space’ will add another six months.”
In further fund financing stages, facilities and support will be provided to large science and technology companies located in science parks, Vahdat also said.
18​ IRAN Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com