Iran’s non-oil exports reached 23 billion dollars in the first six months of the current Iranian year (March 21-September 22), deputy industry minister said Saturday, adding that the balance of foreign trade is now shifting in Iran’s favor. “This is clearly good news for the economy, however, our goal is to move toward a balanced trade and provide a fairly even reciprocal trade pattern,” Mojtaba Khosrotaj said. The government, he said, aims to support the private sector in a bid to increase exports. “In the first three months of the current Iranian year (March 21-June 22), the banking system has allocated more than 180,000 billion rials ($6.74 billion) for setting up new industrial firms; but we think that the number should double in the near future.” Khosrotaj added that the government has provided more than 12,000 billion rials ($450 million) as venture capital for the industrial firms.
