Tourism Investors Receive Low-Interest Loans

Based on an agreement between the vice presidency for rural development and deprived areas and Iran’s Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism Organization, investors in rural tourism projects will be given low-interest loans.

The loans will be given with 8% and 3% interest rates with the aim of developing sustainable employment in the country.

Abolfazl Razavi, director of the vice presidency, stressed the importance of using the funds to promote desert tourism, IRNA reported.

“Iran’s deserts can generate high income, if the required infrastructure is developed,” he said.

Pointing to Europeans’ interest in Iranian deserts, the official said development of leisure activities such as camel-riding is essential to attracting these potential tourists.    

Razavi also moaned the lack of investment in the handicrafts sector.

“Iran, China and India are among top countries regarding handicraft production, but the other two states have developed further and Iran has a long road ahead,” he said.  

The incumbent administration has given special attention to investment in the tourism sector as a means to help reduce Iran’s oil dependency and boost the economy by creating jobs and generating revenues.  

It has developed plans to create rural jobs to help curb the alarming pattern of migration from villages to the overcrowded cities. Results of the National Population and Housing Census released in February show that in the past five years, 3.9 million people moved from rural to urban areas.

Currently, from among the 64,000 villages in the country, thousands are completely deserted and in fact abandoned due to the deteriorating economy, joblessness and long years of drought that saw unusually large numbers of people migrating to cities in search of work.