Iran to Attract Foreign Investment to Boost Agriculture: Minister
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Minister of Agricultural Jihad Mahmoud Hojjati said his ministry has put the attraction of foreign investment top on the agenda in a bid to stimulate the country’s agricultural growth.
“Having signed a law to support and encourage the foreign investors and present investment opportunities for the agricultural sector, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s administration has prepared the ground for the inflow of foreign investors,” Hojjati said in a Wednesday meeting with a group of agricultural industry owners coming from France.
The minister made clear that Iran and France can forge stronger cooperation in a whole host of agricultural fields, such as production of organic foods, animal husbandry and fish farming, modern irrigation methods and harvesting technics.
He added that the two countries can even bolster academic ties in the area of agricultural industries, biotechnology, nanotechnology as well as marketing.
According to Hojjati, Iran produces over 90 million tons of agricultural products each year and ranks among the top ten list of the world’s biggest exporters of agricultural goods.
In October 2013, only two months after President Hassan Rouhani took the office, Iran’s Industry Minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh announced that the administration was planning to annually attract an average of eight billion US dollars of foreign investment in the next four years.
Planning for attraction of foreign investments must be the axis for the country’s industrial activities, he said at the time, adding that foreign investments in advanced technologies and hi-tech field would be necessary.
