On the sidelines of his visit to BAT Pars Company which has been established by foreign investors, Saman Ghasemi, the Director General for foreign Investments of OIETAI, said: “this year seen foreign investment approvals worth more than 7 billion dollars and a foreign capital entry of 1.8 billion dollars. It is predicted that by the end of the year, the figure for direct foreign investment will hit 2 billion dollars”.

According to the Public Relations Department of the Organization for Investment, Economic & Technical Assistance of Iran (OIETAI), Ghasemi reiterated: “by reaching the 2 billion dollar level will have a new record in attraction of foreign investment”.

Replying to q question by our reporter on how much employment has been created by these foreign investments, Ghasemi said: “it depends on the industry where the investment has been made, but, all in all, foreign investment has managed to create desirable employment in all areas”.

Mohamamd Shalchi Fard the manager of tobacco trade development reminded our reporter that “since 1920’s the tobacco industry was monopolized in Iran and cigarette imports were smuggled to Iran, but a new policy was adopted and it was decided to carry out the imports in an official way and foreign investments were also made to produce cigarettes inside the country”.

Regarding the capital return on the foreign cigarette production project in Iran, he said: “it depends on where the investment has been made but BOT’s capital return will happen within 7 years”.

Shalchi Fard underscored that at the end of the seventh year the ownership of the imported machinery will be ceded to Iran’s Tobacco Company.
It needs to be mentioned that the value of the direct foreign investment made in this project is 44 million dollars.