TEHRAN (Iran News) – Iran approved 82 projects worth $854 million in the previous Iranian calendar year, ending March 19, for implementation in domestic industrial, mining and trade sectors with foreign investments.

According to last year figures by the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade pertaining to foreign investments in domestic projects, of the total number of registered companies willing to implement the 82 plans, 33 percent entirely consist of foreign stakeholders and 48 percent is shared by domestic and foreign partners, IRNA reported.

Statistics show that the industrial sector accounted for 98 percent of the investments, the mining sector had a 12 percent share and 1.88 percent pertained to the trade sector.

In addition, the highest amounts of investments were made in plans in provinces of Zanjan (northwestern Iran), Khorasan Razavi (northeastern Iran), Kermanshah (western Iran), Hormuzgan (southern Iran) and the capital Tehran, respectively.

Investors willing to take part in the projects of these provinces have been from the UAE, the Netherlands, China, Turkey, and Germany.

Investors from India and Hong Kong have shown greater interest in investing in the domestic mining sector’s projects, such as extracting and processing magnesite and producing nepheline and syenite concentrate.

Investments in the trade sector have been mostly in projects including the construction of restaurants, web- and software-based goods registration and production of leather handicrafts.

The largest amounts of investments in the trade sector in this period pertained to the production of tobacco, foodstuffs, and beverages, non-metallic minerals, chemicals, coke and oil byproducts, respectively.

In addition, Afghanistan, with 14 plans, accounted for the highest number of approved projects, followed by Turkey (13), China (11), the UAE (six), Austria (six), Iraq (five) and India (five).

Khorasan Razavi Province (20 projects) was the main target of investments followed by provinces of Tehran (11) and Qazvin, East Azarbaijan and Khuzestan, each with five projects.

Moreover, provinces of Zanjan, Khorasan Razavi, Kermanshah and Hormuzgan accounted for 54 percent of the total approved foreign investments.