Page 22 - IRANRptAug19

Armenia, Iran to do gas-for-electricity deal as part of EEU trade
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Armenian Deputy Prime Minister Mher Grigoryan agreed at their meeting in Tehran on July 3 to expand cooperation in several areas of mutual interest between the two countries, News.am reported.
Armenia and Iran are removing potential hurdles in their quest to link up their economies as part of Iran’s accession into the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) free trade area (FTA), as Iran is connected at its northern border with the current EEU member, Tehran and Yerevan have the most to gain from the FTA.
Before the official meeting, Iran’s Energy Minister Reza Ardakanian announced a so-called gas-for-goods deal between the two countries.
“Iran exports gas to Armenia and Armenia can, in urgent cases, export electricity to Iran in exchange for that,” he said, adding “The capacity of gas exports from Iran to Armenia can be increased.
"As agreed, multilateral agreements are to be made to increase gas exports to Armenia and swap of goods with the country,” Ardakanian said.
According to the Iranian official, electricity exchange between Iran and Armenia is 350 MW as part of a previously agreed transfer deal.
"In the course of developing our communications with Armenia, we will complete the third line with a capacity of 700 MW of electricity transmission, which will improve the exchange capacity between the two countries to more than 1,000 megawatts by 2020," Iran’s Mehr News quoted him as saying.
On June 30, it was reported that Iran’s Deputy Energy Minister Homayoun Haeri said his government and Armenia were discussing creating a joint energy grid for transmissions, as part of the broader electricity discussions.
5.3 FDI
Iran FDI 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
FDI net inflows (BoP) (USD bn)
3.649 4.277 4.662 3.05 2.105 2.05 3.372 5.019
FDI net inflows (% of GDP)
0.749 0.733 0.778 0.653 0.485 0.531 0.805 1.105
FDI net outflows (% of GDP)
0.049 0.044 0.226 0.04 0.001 0.031 0.025
source: World Bank
Five-year residences in Iran offered to foreigners who bring $250,000 investment
I ran’s Interior Ministry has announced that with a $250,000 investment in the economy a foreigner can be granted a five-year residency, Tasnim News Agency reported on July 31.
Like other regional countries including Turkey and Azerbaijan, Iran is attempting to increase its income from foreign direct investment (FDI), but transferring money from abroad to an Iranian bank account is presently a perilous activity given the heavy US sanctions aimed at Iran, which can trigger secondary sanctions against foreigners in such cases. Thus, a foreigner looking to take advantage of the offer would likely have to bring cash.
Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli said the plan was aimed at boosting investment into several sectors of the Iranian economy, which has plunged back into recession since the new US sanctions regime started taking effect last year.
“According to a plan approved by the administration, any foreigner who invests
22 IRAN Country Report August 2019 www.intellinews.com