TEHRAN (Iran News) – Head of Overseas Agriculture Organization says after the tension hit up in relation between Iran and Tajikistan, the latter expelled Iranian investors from the country and toughened up investment situation for Iranians and this bad memory still lives up with Iranians and for this reason Iranians show no interest for investment in this Central Asian country.
Speaking to ILNA and when was asked whether Iran can take advantage of cultural commonalities with Tajikistan for developing extraterrestrial cultivation, Ali Rezavanizadeh said that today Iran is facing with serious water tension and this woe has made the country face some challenges in creating food security.
He noted that to advance economic activities, one should consider several factors, adding that countries for extraterrestrial cultivation are chosen based on certain parameters by the association and with considering the defined indexes, agriculture has no economic justification in Tajikistan and for this reason this country is among the second or third priorities.
Rezvanzadeh noted that security in investment, diplomatic relation and ranking of the countries in the ease of doing business index are of the main parameters in choosing countries for extraterrestrial cultivation and having good water and land is not considered as the main criterion for choosing the country. He added that a country like Poland which enjoys having valuable water resources is considered as the second priority for the association because the economic background of Iranians in this country is not strong.
He reiterated that Iranians cannot do big agro business in Tajikistan because they can do the same job with the cost much lower in countries like Russia, Kazakhstan, Brazil and Ukraine.
He then pointed to the high cost of transportation to Tajikistan and said transportation of one ton of goods from Tajikistan to Iran costs between 80 to 100 dollars and by the way in Tajikistan you can cultivate once in a year while in Venezuela you can cultivate 3 times per year and transportation of each ton of goods from Venezuela to southern ports of Iran costs 55 dollars.
Rezvanzadeh reiterated that the first condition for starting an economic relation between the two states is to create security in the investment process and major part of it comes back to the governments’ commitment and if security is not restored in investment, investor sees himself a loser and does not dare to invest.
