Data from the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade indicates that South Khorasan Province attracted the most investment in the first two months of the current Iranian year (March 21 to May 21, 2015) among the 37 provinces and free trade zones listed in the report.
Based on the report, the eastern province accounted for 2,314 billion rials ($70 million at market exchange rate) of the more than 10,356 billion rials ($313 million) investments made during the period, Persian newspaper Ta’adol reported.
Alborz Province and East Azarbaijan Province came in second and third, with 1,484 billion rials ($44 million) and 768.8 billion rials ($23 million) respectively.
Meanwhile, Qeshm Free Zone and the provinces of Bushehr and North Khorasan were at the bottom of the list in terms of capital investments. While Qeshm Free Zone recorded zero investment during the period, North Khorasan and Bushehr received meager amounts of 3.2 billion rials ($97,000) and 4.6 billion rials ($140,000) respectively.
Provincial Investment Growth
South Khorasan also registered the highest growth of 16,314% in capital investments during the period compared to the similar period of the previous year. The considerable growth was driven mainly by the inauguration of a coal coke production facility in Tabas County.
Ilam and Alborz were the other major provinces, recording 317.4% and 313.9% growth respectively.
Investments in Qeshm Free Zone, Bushehr Province and Anzali Free Zone recorded negative growth compared with the similar period last year, declining by 100%, 98% and 95% respectively.
Operating Permits
The highest number of operating permits were issued in the provinces of East Azarbaijan (46), Isfahan (43) and Tehran (22) during the period.
Again the free zones were placed at the bottom of the list with Qeshm issuing zero operating permits and Anzali and Maku registering only one operating permit each.
The highest growth in the number of operating permits issued during the period was in Kermanshah and Hormozgan provinces, each registering 300% growth compared with the similar period last year.
A total of 355 operating permits were issued during the period, showing a reduction of 10.4% compared with the similar period in the previous year.
Job Creation
A total of 5,130 jobs were created by industrial and mining enterprises during the first two months of the current Iranian year, showing 27.6% decline compared with the similar period last year.
Having created 625 jobs during the period, East Azarbaijan Province came first, followed by Isfahan (532) and Alborz (398).
The least impressive figures were for Qeshm with zero job creation, Bushehr Province with only 5 new employment opportunities and Payam Special Economic Zone with 6 jobs.
South Khorasan Province registered the highest growth (811.1%) in the number of jobs created during the two-month period compared with the similar period last year, followed by Golestan (114.3%) and Hormozgan (85.7%) provinces.
