$52b Earmarked to Attract Expats

Iranian lawmakers have added a new article to the budget for the upcoming fiscal year (March 2017-18) to attract US-based Iranian expatiates and their investments.

Based on the article, the legislators urged the government to provide 2,000 trillion rials ($52.92 billion) to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Finance to recruit Iranian nationals living in the US and attract their investment.

Lawmaker Mohsen Kouhkan, who had put forth the proposal, said the parliament’s move “conveys a clear message” to the world that Iran supports every single one of its citizens all over the world, IRNA reported.

The move came after the administration of new US President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on Iranian entities and individuals, and included Iran in Washington’s travel ban on seven predominantly Muslim countries.

Five to seven million Iranians are estimated to live in other countries, a majority of whom are the country’s scientific, cultural and economic elites. Out of 3,200 top science champions in the world, 24 are Iranians.

In March 2007, Majlis Research Center, citing National Elites Foundation, put the capital assets of Iranian expatriates at over $1.3 trillion and those of Iranian-Americans alone at over $900 billion.

In June 2015, Javad Qavam Shahidi, a senior official with the High Council of Iranian Expatiates Affairs, said the wealth of foreign-based Iranians is estimated to be $2 trillion.

This amount exceeded the country’s GDP in 2014. Absorption of just 10% of this capital could work miracles for the Iranian economy.