A memorandum of understanding was signed Sunday between the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism and the National Development Fund of Iran, the sovereign wealth fund, to revive the struggling tourism industry.
The document was signed by Mehdi Ghazanfari, the managing director of NDFI and Ezatollah Zaraghami, the minister the NDFI’s public relations website reported.
It was agreed that the fund will deposit 20 trillion rials ($75 million) with commercial banks to be lent for tourism promotion.
Zaraghami welcomed the move and said, “Along with the resources offered by banks, it is predicted that the tourism sector will receive 60 trillion rials [$226m] next year. This could be a turning point for the sector”.
The amount is three times earmarked in the current fiscal year that ends on March 19.
Alireza Mirsadeqi, a board member of the NDFI, said the fund gave 48 trillion rials ($181 million) to the tourism industry in the past six years.
“Between 6%-7% of the total NDFI resources has been given to the tourism sector.”
In the same vein, Saead Owhadi, the deputy minister for resource development, expressed the hope that the new funding would create 40,000 direct jobs in the struggling sector.
“The MoU will help complete 700 unfinished projects delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
NDFI is independent of the government and was set up in 2011 to curb dependency on oil and save a percentage of the earnings from oil and gas exports for the welfare of future generations.
In an earlier report, the NDFI said it invested $27 billion in oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, $13 billion in water projects, $5 billion to expand power plants and $1.5 billion for sustainable rural employment since inception in 2011.
In the 2022-23 budget bill the government is supposed to deposit 20% of its revenue from oil and gas export with the NDFI instead of 40%.
