The government is turning to European financiers to complete infrastructure projects instead of using oil revenues that have been hammered due to the plummeting prices in international crude markets.
Ali Nourzad, deputy minister of roads and urban development, referred to the recent plunge in crude prices and said, “Attracting foreign resources would reduce the country’s dependence on oil income and government funds,” ILNA reported Tuesday.
In recent months government officials said hundreds of unfinished projects worth billions of dollars are awaiting funds. If completed, the projects will have a major positive impact on the economy that for long has borne the brunt of the international sanctions.
Nourzad said foreign participation in major projects has already taken off and referred to the financing of construction of the Tabriz-Bazargan Highway, in East Azarbaijan Province by the Turks through BOT (build-operate-transfer) contracts.
The Tehran-Isfahan electric train project will also be financed by the Chinese in the near future, he added.
Government shift toward alternative sources of project funding comes amid the rout in global oil markets that started in the summer of last year.
Overproduction by OPEC has sent crude below $40 a barrel, putting a strain on countries whose economies are tied to oil revenues.
