Tehran Hosting Int’l Building, Construction Expo

The 21st edition of the International Exhibition of Building and Construction Industry opened at Tehran International Fairgrounds on Sept. 13, in the presence of Minister of Roads and Urban Development Qasem Rostami.
Some 630 companies representing domestic businesses as well as those from Finland, Canada, China, Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea and Germany are participating in the four-day event, showcasing their latest products and services. 
Moreover, 120 businesspeople from Iraq, Turkey, Afghanistan, Kenya, Indonesia, Syria and the UAE are present in this year’s event as part of commercial delegations from their respective countries.
On the sidelines of the exhibition, the Third Architecture Festival of Iran, in addition to different workshops in the fields of construction industry and services export, is being held. 
Iran's construction industry is expected to have expanded marginally by 0.7% in 2020, down from the growth of 8% in 2019.
A report by Research and Markets expects the country's construction output to expand by 1.8% in 2021, before registering an annual average growth of 3.3% between 2022 and 2025.
This will be supported by investments in the energy, oil and gas, petrochemicals, infrastructure and industrial sectors. In an effort to boost the economy and improve infrastructure, the Iranian government aims to complete over 3,900 km of new railroads and roads by March 2022.
The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the steep decline in oil and gas prices, has weighed on the Iranian economy, which was already battered by the US sanctions that curb oil and gas exports, which are crucial for government revenues. The economic weakness amid the Covid-19 pandemic and US sanctions, coupled with the depreciation of the currency and rising inflation, further weighed on the construction industry's output last year.
As a result of the sanctions, oil revenue in the country fell from over 1.6 quadrillion rials ($5.9 billion) in 2018 to less than 840 trillion rials ($3.1 billion) each in 2019 and 2020, according to the Central Bank of Iran. 
Since early 2018, the value of Iranian rial has fallen eightfold and inflation in the country has increased by at least 40% as of last year.
In a positive development, however, the change in the US administration is expected to relieve tensions between the US and Iran, as US President Joe Biden is in favor of returning to the Iranian nuclear deal, which was previously abandoned in 2018.
Despite this optimism, there have been delays in negotiations, as both countries wait for the other party to fulfil certain conditions.
In March 2021, the government announced that 323.2 trillion rials ($1.19 billion) will be invested on 62 projects in the industrial, mining and trade-related sectors. 
From mid-March 2020 to mid-February 2021, the government also approved 135 foreign investments projects worth 96.5 trillion ($357 million) in those sectors.