TEHRAN (Iran News) – Chairman of Iran-China Joint Chamber of Commerce Majid Reza Hariri believes the Chinese investments in Iran will improve and in upcoming months more investments from China will flood into the country.
Speaking to ILNA and reacting to dissatisfaction of Deputy Finance Minister over the low amount of investment by the Chinese, Majid Reza Hariri said that the private sector does not have exact statistics and the state sectors have more precise information about the statistics but in recent three decades the average foreign investments in Iran has been around $2b.
He emphasized that financing and financial support is considered as indirect investment and there are two views for lack of interests for foreign investors to arrive in Iran. He added that one view is that the country should become attractive for investors to come to the country while the business climate in the recent three decades has been favorable and Iran’s place in the global transparency ranking is among 10 bottom countries in the standings and some other factors like free investment and competitiveness are in the lowest level which has made Iran unattractive for foreign investors.
Hariri went on to say that factors like religion and flag are not important for foreign investors and they do not mix their feelings with their business and they seek abundant profit with lowest risks but there is not such a condition in Iran because economy is non-transparent, state-run and non-competitive and it discourages attracting investment.
He added that the second view is that if foreign investors enter the country, factors for attracting investment will improve and factors will become transparent. He went on to say that major foreign investors have entered Iran’s oil, gas and petrochemical sectors because these businesses follow the international oil market rules and not Iran’s domestic rules, and foreign investors know that they should sign contracts with the governments to save themselves from the non-transparent climates.
He noted that Iran has not created attractive climate for foreign investments in three decades and sanctions have also worsened it, and small amount of remained attraction has gone. He said that Iran’s economic climate is very risky and only those investors who like risks arrive in Iran and usually those who take risk usually have little interests in the healthy activities.
Hariri emphasized that investment in the sanctions era is very difficult, adding that every year around $10b of capital exit the country or better to say that flight of capital, reiterating that as long as there is no transparency and competitiveness in the economy, we should not go for foreign investments and therefore the rate of investment in Iran is always negative.
He added that there is good capacity for joint investment between Iran and China and the Chinese are interested to bring more investments to Iran and he believes in the upcoming years this will happen especially from companies which are not private.
Hariri also criticized Iranians’ behavior with the Chinese and called for fair and equal approach to all foreign investors. He reiterated that it seems managers in the middle levels do not like cooperation with the Chinese and they prefer Westerners than Easterners.
